Anna Elizabeth & John Wheeler and their 10 children
Anna Elizabeth Mellsop - known as Annie or 'Nannie' in her family - was the second surviving child of John and Maria Mellsop, arriving in New Zealand with her mother when she was 17, on December 29, 1855. During the voyage her younger sister Mary Ellen (probably aged 11) died and was buried at sea just a few days before the family reached Auckland.
Annie was born in Dublin around 1838, and her mother - who was short of money and still awaiting the arrival of her husband John from America - found work for the older children soon after they arrived, firstly in Auckland and later in the Waikato, Anna went as a governess for the Rev John and Maria Morgan's family at the CMS mission station at Otawhao (later Te Awamutu) where she stayed for at least four years. In 1861 she is mentioned in John Morgan's journal as having been with the family for four years. It would have been on a return visit to her family in Mauku that she would have met John Wheeler, a local settler who had a farm at Titi Hill, and had recently driven off some natives who had killed some of his livestock (an incident that led into the New Zealand Wars). On 9 February 1866 Anna married John Wheeler at St Peter's church, Onehunga, and moved to Titi Farm with her new husband. The Titi Hill farm was not far from Glenbrook, where Anna Elizabeth's parents lived at "Knockmaroon".
Annie and John had ten children before Annie died of breast cancer in 1883, leaving a family which ranged in age from 2 to 16 years.
Anna Elizabeth Wheeler (nee Mellsop)'s dates:-
Born about 1837 in Dublin, Ireland Died 6 February 1883 in Mauku, Auckland, New Zealand |
Children of Anna Elizabeth & John Wheeler
(click on the names to go to the biography pages for each of their children) Click HERE to return to the Home page about Anna Elizabeth Mellsop's parents |