GODDARD, William Wilson
Born 29 December 1869; died 22 November 1918; buried 23 November 1918; age 49
William GODDARD was a prison warder at Wellington’s Terrace Gaol, who lived at 21 Devon Street (i) close to his place of work. Unlike many of his colleagues who were accommodated in housing built in the deep gully that connects Devon Street to the land on which the prison was sited (the houses remain to this day) the Goddard family lived on the uphill side of the steep, narrow, and winding street in a 1906-built house high above the road. The more recent occupants of number 21 were evacuated in July 2017 when heavy rains threatened a slip that might have brought down the house to the street below.
Born 29 December 1869; died 22 November 1918; buried 23 November 1918; age 49
William GODDARD was a prison warder at Wellington’s Terrace Gaol, who lived at 21 Devon Street (i) close to his place of work. Unlike many of his colleagues who were accommodated in housing built in the deep gully that connects Devon Street to the land on which the prison was sited (the houses remain to this day) the Goddard family lived on the uphill side of the steep, narrow, and winding street in a 1906-built house high above the road. The more recent occupants of number 21 were evacuated in July 2017 when heavy rains threatened a slip that might have brought down the house to the street below.
Terrace Gaol, Wellington. Crown Studios Ltd: Negatives and prints.
Ref: 1/1-032513-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22325355
Ref: 1/1-032513-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22325355
This snip from Google Earth shows the proximity of 21 Devon Street to the Gaol site,
now occupied by Te Aro School (top right of the image).
now occupied by Te Aro School (top right of the image).
Perhaps this landscape vulnerability a century later represents how William’s wife felt in 1918 when William died suddenly with influenza leaving her to bring up their four children, the youngest of whom was just 3.
William Goddard was born in Nelson late in December 1869, the third son of four to Emma Hobbs BURT (a carpenter’s daughter who arrived in Wellington as a baby in 1840) and Henry William Goddard born in Leicester, England in 1831. William’s parents had married in New Zealand in 1865; William’s older brothers were Harry William (1866), and Frank (1868), and his younger one was George Frederick (1874): their sister Rosa was born in 1871. In the same year that George was born, William’s father died suddenly with heart disease while the family was living in Nelson. In 1875 Emma married again, this time in Karitane, Otago, to a Nelson widower and boatbuilder, Thomas Richard Heywood TAYLOR who had earlier been bankrupt and who brought several children of his own to the marriage. The couple went on to have two sons and two daughters together.
While William’s younger brother George Frederick took up ship’s carpentry as a career, the 5ft 9 inches William became a labourer on leaving school. He gave this occupation in attesting in Nelson on 28 March 1900 for service as a corporal in the Fifth Contingent going to the South African war. William was then 30. He served in Rhodesia, Cape Colony, and in the Transvaal for a little over a year before his return to New Zealand with a left knee damaged when he was thrown against a gun wheel. The result was that it was weakened making it occasionally prone to dislocate. William was finally discharged from the Army in May 1903 and noted as being of good character.
It is clear that his remarried mother had moved before 1900 from Nelson to Tory Street, Wellington as William gives the name of ‘Mrs E Taylor’ as his next-of-kin on his attestation.
On his discharge from the Army William needed a less physically demanding job than labouring to be able to accommodate his injured knee. He found that the role of prison warder suited him, first in Lyttelton and then in Hanmer Springs and Dunedin before coming to work at the Wellington Gaol, then located at the south end of the Terrace where Te Aro school is today. By 1906 William was staying with his older brother, Harry William Goddard, a carpenter, who lived at 3 Palmer Street, off the top of Willis Street. All up William worked a full 15 years and 11 months for the prison service, being first appointed to its permanent staff on 23 April 1902, and achieving the award of his long service medal after 14 years. The 1918 list of permanent employees of the public service shows that William was paid £210 a year salary in his job.
In 1908 William married Hannah May CURTIS, born 1886, in Christchurch to Fanny and John Curtis. Hannah was their third daughter of four and she had three brothers, all born between 1883 and 1897. Hannah had worked in domestic service in 1905 for Mr and Mrs Buxton in St Albans and appeared before an inquest into the sudden, natural death of Mrs Buxton (ii).
William and Hannah Goddard had four children; the eldest, Evelyn Jean was born in 1909, followed by William Curtis in 1910, and Agnes Isabelle in 1911 (all born probably while William was working at the Dunedin gaol). Jessie Georgina arrived in 1915 to complete the family when her parents were living in Wellington.
In view of the crowded, close living, cramped, and poorly ventilated conditions in gaol, it is not surprising that both prisoners and warders were among those who contracted influenza in the outbreak. Containing its spread must have presented a challenge to the gaol governor and also made staffing rosters a nightmare to organise.
When William became seriously ill with influenza he was taken to the temporary hospital at Wellington College where he died on 22 November. He was buried the next day in the Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery.
William had made his will in October 1909 while living in Dunedin, leaving his estate to his wife who was appointed executrix. Hannah elected to have it administered by the Public Trustee who recorded that the estate was worth under £900 (c. $95k in 2017 values). By 16 January 1919, when Hannah swore the affidavit on William’s death, she had taken her children to Styx in north Canterbury to the welcome support of her parents who were farming there. It was the Public Trust that paid the £11/15/- cost of William’s funeral from his estate. This was done on 22 February 1919, and on 12 May 1919 Hannah purchased the burial plot for William. By then she was living in Mill Road Christchurch.
Hannah marked William’s headstone with the following inscription:
In Loving Memory of my dear husband William W GODDARD d 22 Nov 1918. ‘Until we meet before His throne, goodnight'.
His fellow gaolers provided an memorial stone in the form of an open book on the main body of his grave, inscribed:
‘As a token of respect from his fellow workers of the Terrace Gaol. Farewell.'
In 1920 Hannah married Donald Fraser MACKENZIE, a Canterbury labourer and lived the rest of her life in the area before she died in 1953 in Christchurch.
William’s Goddard’s mother Emma Taylor had died in May 1918 and was buried in another part of Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. His younger brother George predeceased William and died in Auckland in 1917.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: PUBLIC2
Plot: 296 I
Sources:
(i) Evening Post 23 November 1918 death notice inserted by his wife, Hannah.
(ii) The Press 27 October 1905
William Goddard was born in Nelson late in December 1869, the third son of four to Emma Hobbs BURT (a carpenter’s daughter who arrived in Wellington as a baby in 1840) and Henry William Goddard born in Leicester, England in 1831. William’s parents had married in New Zealand in 1865; William’s older brothers were Harry William (1866), and Frank (1868), and his younger one was George Frederick (1874): their sister Rosa was born in 1871. In the same year that George was born, William’s father died suddenly with heart disease while the family was living in Nelson. In 1875 Emma married again, this time in Karitane, Otago, to a Nelson widower and boatbuilder, Thomas Richard Heywood TAYLOR who had earlier been bankrupt and who brought several children of his own to the marriage. The couple went on to have two sons and two daughters together.
While William’s younger brother George Frederick took up ship’s carpentry as a career, the 5ft 9 inches William became a labourer on leaving school. He gave this occupation in attesting in Nelson on 28 March 1900 for service as a corporal in the Fifth Contingent going to the South African war. William was then 30. He served in Rhodesia, Cape Colony, and in the Transvaal for a little over a year before his return to New Zealand with a left knee damaged when he was thrown against a gun wheel. The result was that it was weakened making it occasionally prone to dislocate. William was finally discharged from the Army in May 1903 and noted as being of good character.
It is clear that his remarried mother had moved before 1900 from Nelson to Tory Street, Wellington as William gives the name of ‘Mrs E Taylor’ as his next-of-kin on his attestation.
On his discharge from the Army William needed a less physically demanding job than labouring to be able to accommodate his injured knee. He found that the role of prison warder suited him, first in Lyttelton and then in Hanmer Springs and Dunedin before coming to work at the Wellington Gaol, then located at the south end of the Terrace where Te Aro school is today. By 1906 William was staying with his older brother, Harry William Goddard, a carpenter, who lived at 3 Palmer Street, off the top of Willis Street. All up William worked a full 15 years and 11 months for the prison service, being first appointed to its permanent staff on 23 April 1902, and achieving the award of his long service medal after 14 years. The 1918 list of permanent employees of the public service shows that William was paid £210 a year salary in his job.
In 1908 William married Hannah May CURTIS, born 1886, in Christchurch to Fanny and John Curtis. Hannah was their third daughter of four and she had three brothers, all born between 1883 and 1897. Hannah had worked in domestic service in 1905 for Mr and Mrs Buxton in St Albans and appeared before an inquest into the sudden, natural death of Mrs Buxton (ii).
William and Hannah Goddard had four children; the eldest, Evelyn Jean was born in 1909, followed by William Curtis in 1910, and Agnes Isabelle in 1911 (all born probably while William was working at the Dunedin gaol). Jessie Georgina arrived in 1915 to complete the family when her parents were living in Wellington.
In view of the crowded, close living, cramped, and poorly ventilated conditions in gaol, it is not surprising that both prisoners and warders were among those who contracted influenza in the outbreak. Containing its spread must have presented a challenge to the gaol governor and also made staffing rosters a nightmare to organise.
When William became seriously ill with influenza he was taken to the temporary hospital at Wellington College where he died on 22 November. He was buried the next day in the Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery.
William had made his will in October 1909 while living in Dunedin, leaving his estate to his wife who was appointed executrix. Hannah elected to have it administered by the Public Trustee who recorded that the estate was worth under £900 (c. $95k in 2017 values). By 16 January 1919, when Hannah swore the affidavit on William’s death, she had taken her children to Styx in north Canterbury to the welcome support of her parents who were farming there. It was the Public Trust that paid the £11/15/- cost of William’s funeral from his estate. This was done on 22 February 1919, and on 12 May 1919 Hannah purchased the burial plot for William. By then she was living in Mill Road Christchurch.
Hannah marked William’s headstone with the following inscription:
In Loving Memory of my dear husband William W GODDARD d 22 Nov 1918. ‘Until we meet before His throne, goodnight'.
His fellow gaolers provided an memorial stone in the form of an open book on the main body of his grave, inscribed:
‘As a token of respect from his fellow workers of the Terrace Gaol. Farewell.'
In 1920 Hannah married Donald Fraser MACKENZIE, a Canterbury labourer and lived the rest of her life in the area before she died in 1953 in Christchurch.
William’s Goddard’s mother Emma Taylor had died in May 1918 and was buried in another part of Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. His younger brother George predeceased William and died in Auckland in 1917.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson
Grave Information:
Section: PUBLIC2
Plot: 296 I
Sources:
(i) Evening Post 23 November 1918 death notice inserted by his wife, Hannah.
(ii) The Press 27 October 1905