Outhwaite Family, Auckland
Encyclopedia
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
and were an important family in the first eighty five years of the city's existence. Their influence still continues, especially in respect of two areas of land in central Auckland which are now Outhwaite Park
Grafton, New Zealand
Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting it's history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades...
and the site of St Peter's College
St Peter's College, Auckland
St Peter's College is a Catholic college for year 7 to 13 boys . The school, located in Auckland, is one of the largest Catholic schools in New Zealand and is an integrated school under an integration agreement entered into by the Catholic Bishop of Auckland and the Government of New Zealand in...
, a nearby Catholic boys' secondary school. The family also enabled the creation of a conservation reserve in the Hen and Chicken Islands
Hen and Chicken Islands
The Hen and Chickens Islands lie to the east of the North Auckland Peninsula off the coast of northern New Zealand. They are located to the east of Bream Head and southeast of Whangarei....
.
Thomas and Louise Outhwaite
Thomas Outhwaite was born at Ormside Hall in WestmorelandWestmoreland
Westmoreland is a historic county in England. It may also refer to:-Places:Australia*Westmoreland County, New South WalesCanada*Westmorland County, New BrunswickJamaica*Westmoreland, Jamaica, a parishNew Zealand...
in 1805. He practised as a solicitor in Paris before coming to New Zealand in 1841 on the ship, the Tyne
William Swainson (lawyer)
William Swainson was born in Lancaster, England on 25 April 1809 and educated in Lancaster Grammar School. His legal education was in Middle Temple and he was called to the bar in 1838...
, with the first Chief Justice of New Zealand
Chief Justice of New Zealand
The Chief Justice of New Zealand is the head of the New Zealand judiciary, and presides over the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Before the establishment of the latter court in 2004 the Chief Justice was the presiding judge in the High Court of New Zealand and was also ex officio a member of the...
, Sir William Martin and Hon William Swainson
William Swainson (lawyer)
William Swainson was born in Lancaster, England on 25 April 1809 and educated in Lancaster Grammar School. His legal education was in Middle Temple and he was called to the bar in 1838...
, the first Attorney-General of New Zealand. Thomas Outhwaite was appointed as Registrar of the Supreme Court
High Court of New Zealand
The High Court of New Zealand is a superior court of New Zealand. It was established in 1841 and known as the Supreme Court of New Zealand until 1980....
(now the High Court of New Zealand) for Sir William Martin and was the first person to hold that position which he took up on 1 January 1842. One of his most exciting experiences was during the trial of a Māori man for murder when 100 of the accused's supporters "... came rushing up the totally unformed street, shaking spears and brandishing tomohawks above their heads to rescue [the accused] from the clutches of the law. And they did rescue him, while the court sat petrified, unable to avert the lawless deed or arrest the doers, ... [this] in the very heart of the capital of the country." In 1843, Thomas Outhwaite, in company with Sir William Martin and Henry St. Hill, M.L.C. (Member of the Legislative Council), returned to Auckland overland on foot from Wellington, where they had gone on the Government brig "Victoria" (a three-week sea voyage), to hold a session of the court. The return trip occupied a period of six weeks. When Thomas Outhwaite retired in 1869, Sir George Arney
George Arney
Sir George Alfred Arney was the second Chief Justice of New Zealand, from 1858 to 1875...
, the second Chief Justice of New Zealand, paid tribute to Outhwaite's extraordinary firmness, patience, discretion and self-command. Outhwaite was very fond of music, and was the founder and conductor of the Sacred Harmonic Society, a forerunner of the Auckland Choral Society
Auckland Choral Society
The Auckland Choral Society is New Zealand's oldest surviving arts organisation. It was founded in 1855, and celebrated its 150th anniversary in November 2005 with a choral written by New Zealand composer David Hamilton for the occasion....
. He also acted a conductor of church choirs. He died on 14 July 1879.
It appears that Thomas Outhwaite and his family were living near the Auckland Domain
Auckland Domain
The Auckland Domain is Auckland's oldest park, and at 75 hectares one of the largest in the city. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park contains all of the explosion crater and most of the surrounding tuff ring of the Pukekawa volcano....
by 1843. In 1844 he bought land and built a house on the south-western corner of Carlton Gore Road and Park Road opposite the Domain in the present-day Auckland suburb of Grafton
Grafton, New Zealand
Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting it's history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades...
. This land is now Outhwaite Park
Grafton, New Zealand
Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting it's history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades...
.
Thomas Outhwaite's wife was Marie H Louise Outhwaite (née Roget). She was French, from the city of Besançon
Besançon
Besançon , is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It had a population of about 237,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2008...
. Thomas and Louise led a very active life in early Auckland. For example, in the winter of 1842, the wife of the first Governor of New Zealand, Mrs Hobson gave a ball at Government House. The weather was bad, the roads seemingly impassable, but the guests managed, against considerable odds to be present. Thomas Outhwaite wheeled Louise up to Government House in a wheelbarrow.
William Eugene Outhwaite
William Eugene Outhwaite was the second son of Mr Thomas Outhwaite. He studied law in the 1860s at Oxford. He received help in choosing a college and hospitality while he was in England from Cardinal Newman who was a friend of Bishop PompallierJean Baptiste Pompallier
Jean Baptiste François Pompallier was the first vicar apostolic to visit New Zealand. He was born in Lyon, France. He became the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland.-Appointment and voyage:...
, the first Catholic Bishop of Auckland. William Outhwaite died prematurely. The Cyclopedia of New Zealand (largely a vanity press
Vanity press
A vanity press or vanity publisher is a term describing a publishing house that publishes books at the author's expense. Publisher Johnathon Clifford claims to have coined the term in 1959. However, the term appears in mainstream U.S...
) published this article about him. "Mr William Eugene Outhwaite B.A., Oxon., Barrister-at-Law of the Inner temple, and of the Courts of New Zealand, was a native of Auckland and second son of Mr Thomas Outhwaite ... . He was a man of rare abilities, genial nature, and much culture; but unfortunately he was obliged to go about on crutches, owing to an accident and subsequent rheumatism, contracted at Oxford where he was a good all round athlete. Though well qualified as a lawyer, he gave more attention to letters than to his profession. As a critic, he wrote under the name of 'Orpheus', and writers, musicians, singers, and actors recognised him as an authority. He was a lover and patron of all sport, over which he exercised a wide and popular influence. Mr Outhwaite died on 10 April 1900. Occur when it may, the death of a man so gifted and accomplished is naturally deeply deplored by his friends, but in Mr Outhwaite's case there was an added grief in the knowledge that his death was really the after result of injuries received a year before, when he was knocked down by a recklessly driven brake [i.e. a type of light carriage]."
Long lives
Marie H Louise Outhwaite died on 4 July 1905 (aged 91). Thomas and Louise had four children, two sons and two daughters. Victorine Outhwaite was born in Paris in 1837 (and perhaps named after the new Queen in London). Isa Outhwaite was born in Auckland in 1842. Charles Outhwaite was born in Auckland in 1845 and William Eugene (see above) was also born in Auckland in 1847. None of the four children married or had their own children. Victorine, Isa and Charles Thomas all died in the same year, 1925. Victorine Outhwaite died on 21 March 1925 at the age of 88. Charles Thomas Outhwaite died on 24 June 1925 aged 80. Isa Outhwaite died on 13 December 1925 aged 83. Marie H Louise, Victorine, Isa, Charles and William Eugene are interred in the Catholic section of Waikaraka CemeteryTe Papapa
- to the north-east - to the east - to the south - to the south-west - to the west - to the north-west Penrose Mount Wellington Southdown Favona Mangere Bridge Onehunga...
, Onehunga
Onehunga
Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is eight kilometres south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of One Tree Hill, Maungakiekie....
. Thomas Outhwaite is buried in the graveyard of St Stephen's Chapel, Judges Bay
Mechanics Bay
Mechanics Bay is the name of a former bay on the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland City, New Zealand. It is also the name used to describe the area of the former bay that is now mainly occupied by commercial and port facilities...
(an Anglican cemetery).
Isa Outhwaite
Isa Outhwaite was a noted artist. She exhibited in Auckland from 1875 until 1900. Isa and her mother were close friends of William CowieWilliam Garden Cowie
William Garden Cowie was bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland, New Zealand, from 1870 to 1902. Although he succeeded George Augustus Selwyn in having jurisdiction in this portion of New Zealand, he was the first bishop to be known specifically as Bishop of Auckland...
(1831–1902), the first Anglican Bishop of Auckland (1869–1902) and of Mrs Cowie. Bishop Cowie wrote in relation to Friday 6 January 1888, " ... the evening, I held confirmation at the Church of the Epiphany. Before the last hymn, I presented a lay reader's licence to Mr. J. W. Tibbs [later fourth headmaster of Auckland Grammar School
Auckland Grammar School
Auckland Grammar School is a state secondary school for years 9 to 13 boys in Auckland, New Zealand. It had a roll of 2,483 in 2008, including a number of boarders who live in nearby Tibbs' House, making it one of the largest schools in New Zealand...
(1893–1922)]. On our way to the church, we paid some visits of adieu. One was to Madame Outhwaite, a French lady, and her daughters, who are amongst our oldest Auckland friends. Miss Isa Outhwaite is an accomplished artist, and has given us, as a parting gift, a beautiful painting, done by herself, of the lovely view from our balcony at Bishopscourt."
Isa Outhwaite (as was her mother Marie H Louise earlier) was also a close friend of Mother Suzanne Aubert
Suzanne Aubert
Suzanne Aubert , better known to many by her name of Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whanganui River in 1885. She first came to New Zealand in 1860 and formed Congregation of the Holy...
, founder of the religious order, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion. Isa and Mother Aubert conducted a correspondence for many years. Isa was also very interested in the protection of animals and she was a prison "official visitor" and welfare worker for women prisoners.
It was Isa Outhwaite who left the house and land in Park Road to the citizens of Newmarket for the establishment of Outhwaite Park
Grafton, New Zealand
Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting it's history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades...
and the site on the other side of Khyber Pass Rd
Newmarket, New Zealand
Newmarket is an Auckland suburb to the south-east of the central business district. With its high building density, especially of retail shops, it is considered New Zealand's premier retailing area, and a rival of local competitor Auckland CBD...
to the Catholic Bishop of Auckland for the establishment of St Peter's College
St Peter's College, Auckland
St Peter's College is a Catholic college for year 7 to 13 boys . The school, located in Auckland, is one of the largest Catholic schools in New Zealand and is an integrated school under an integration agreement entered into by the Catholic Bishop of Auckland and the Government of New Zealand in...
. She also left money for the latter purpose. The family also owned interests in the Hen and Chicken Islands
Hen and Chicken Islands
The Hen and Chickens Islands lie to the east of the North Auckland Peninsula off the coast of northern New Zealand. They are located to the east of Bream Head and southeast of Whangarei....
and Isa Outhwaite left these to the nation as a bird sanctuary.