By Roselyn Fauth
Graham Murray Thompson, Elizabeth Jane Whittet (2024). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 20/07/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/8115
There is no known photograph of her face. No surviving letters. No signature I can point to and say, “That’s hers.” But there is a house. A photograph. A family plot. A few records in the library online.... that is enough to begin.
I’ve often noticed the house in the photo, the one said to have belonged to Elizabeth Jane Whittet and her husband John Thompson. It stood and still stands at the corner of Williams and Victoria Streets in Timaru, near where the Botanic Gardens are now. It makes me wonder... who kept the home going while John was away?
John Thompson arrived in Timaru in 1863 and worked as a surveyor. That much is recorded. Elizabeth Jane married him in 1867 by special licence – which often indicated a sense of urgency. Their first child, Belinda, had been born in 1865. Elizabeth gave birth to nine children in total, though five of them died in infancy or childhood. Another died young, drowned. Her husband’s survey work meant long absences, and she was often left to manage alone. She must have been made of grit.
Born in London in 1842, Elizabeth Jane was baptised at St George the Martyr. Records differ on whether her father was John or William. After her father’s death, her mother remarried and the family blended into a new household. Elizabeth and her younger sister Ellen learned dressmaking, most likely from their stepsister. In 1863, the two young women left England for New Zealand aboard the Metropolis. The voyage took 105 days. The passenger list simply says: "Misses E. and E. Whittet – dressmakers."
By 1865, both sisters were living in Timaru. Ellen married a local tailor. Elizabeth began her family. I imagine her walking to market, brushing flour from her apron, mending clothes by firelight, laying small bodies to rest. There are no diaries. No artefacts. But there is that house.
She died in 1904, aged 61, of heart failure. She’s buried in the Timaru Cemetery, in a family plot just inside the main gate. Her life didn’t make headlines. But it contributed to our shared history.
Her home. At just 20 years old, Elizabeth left industrial London with her sister Ellen and sailed for 105 days to New Zealand. There was no guaranteed future, no family waiting, no easy return. This was not a family migration. It was a leap into the unknown — as two single women travelling on a dressmaker’s skill. Graham Murray Thompson, Elizabeth Jane Whittet (2024). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 20/07/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/8115
Her great-grandson, Graham Murray Thompson, wrote about her. His manuscript, held in the Timaru Library, is careful and loving. It includes printouts from Ancestry, newspaper notices, a photograph of the house, and reflections that resonate with any of us who’ve tried to trace family through blurred ink and partial records. One of the items he references is titled John Thompson Surveyor: 20.10.1844 to 11.2.1929. It anchors John’s career and gives dates. But for Elizabeth Jane, there’s mostly silence. And that silence is what stayed with me.
In 2025, I live in the same town she once called home. I have a public voice, digital tools, health care, and choices she never had. But I am also a mother, a woman, a maker of place. I carry invisible labour, shoulder the emotional load, try to leave things better than I found them. Our lives are the same, and different.
Elizabeth Jane Whittet may not have been “notable.” But she was necessary. Women like her made communities possible. Their hands lit fires, washed sheets, shaped young minds and made homes that lasted long after they were gone.
Why does her story matter? Because it’s not extraordinary. And that is the point of this blog. Most lives are lived outside the spotlight. But they deserve to be seen. Remembered. Honoured.
There is no monument to Elizabeth Jane Whittet. But there is this story. A house remembered. A grave visited. A woman known, at last, not just as someone’s wife, but as someone who mattered.
Timeline
18 Aug 1842 – Born in London, England.
30 Oct 1842 – Baptised at St George the Martyr, Queen Square, Holborn.
1850 – Her father, likely John Whittet, dies.
1851 – Her mother, Sarah Paxton, marries Luke Springbett in London.
1863 (4 Mar) – Departs London with sister Ellen aboard Metropolis.
1863 (mid-Jun) – Arrives in Lyttelton, New Zealand, after 105-day voyage.
c. 1865 – Birth of her first child, Belinda, in Timaru.
6 Feb 1867 – Marries John Thompson in Timaru by special licence.
1865–1881 – Gives birth to nine children; five die in infancy or childhood.
1860s–1900s – Lives at the corner of Williams and Victoria Streets, Timaru.
c. 1903 – Diagnosed with heart disease; health declines.
23 Feb 1904 – Dies of heart failure in Timaru, aged 61.
1904 – Buried in Timaru Cemetery, later joined by husband John.
Marriage certificate of Elizabeth Jane Whittet and John Thompson, 6 February 1867. Transcribed in Elizabeth Jane Whittet, Graham Murray Thompson (2024), held at Timaru Library Archives.
Birth of Belinda Thompson, 1865. Cited in Thompson, Elizabeth Jane Whittet, p. 6.
“Between the years of 1865 and 1881... five died in infancy or childhood and one drowned as a young man.” — Thompson, Elizabeth Jane Whittet, p. 7.
Baptism at St George the Martyr, Queen Square, Camden (Holborn), 30 October 1842. Civil registration data searchable at: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/ or via https://www.ancestry.com/
Discrepancy between John and William Whittet as father noted in Thompson, Elizabeth Jane Whittet, pp. 2–3.
Census of 1851. Sarah Whittet (née Paxton) remarried Luke Springbett, a sock maker. Household details on p. 4 of Thompson manuscript. ↩
Shipping record of the Metropolis, departed 4 March 1863 from London, arrived Lyttelton after 105 days. See Archives New Zealand and Papers Past coverage: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Passenger list transcription in Thompson, Elizabeth Jane Whittet, Appendix p. 9.
Death certificate of Elizabeth Jane Thompson, 23 February 1904. Cause of death: fatty degeneration of the heart. Listed in Timaru BDM records: https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz
Thompson, Graham Murray. Elizabeth Jane Whittet (2024). Original manuscript with appendices, housed in the Research Room, Timaru Public Library. For access enquiries, see: https://library.timaru.govt.nz/
John Thompson Surveyor: 20.10.1844 to 11.2.1929. Biographical notes referenced within Thompson’s manuscript, p. 9.