Jane Octavia Ida Orr
Born in 1875, Jane was the daughter of John Thomas Mellsop and Charlotte Elizabeth Crispe. She was educated at Brookside School (Glenbrook School) which opened in 1877 with part-time classes.
Jane Octavia Ida married William Longmuir Orr of Pukekawa, South of Tuakau in 1907. Jane and William first farmed on "The Hill" at Pukekawa and about 1914 they settled at 'Longbeach Farm' and what a charmed life they led, in the district then known as Papatoitoi (Papatoetoe). Family photographs show the happy times enjoyed on the farm, growing up in a stable world in which change came relatively slowly. Swimming at the beaches on the farm, (Backing down to Manukau Harbour), drama productions in the haybarn, and later riding to hounds and playing polo.
Jane's younger brother Lionel, married her husband's younger sister Margaret, one of several intertwinings of the Mellsop family (The Mellsop Family. page 126).
Jane and WIlliam's Daughters:
Their twin daughters, Joan & Nancy, were born 23rd August 1911. After 1924 when Jane passed away the twins stepmother, Louise Cabouret, brought them up providing insights to the French approach to life.
In the late 1930's Joan Orr met Gibby (Gilbert) and shortly after their marriage, they returned to the family farm in Papatoetoe, where they stayed until the 1960's.
The farm was one of many taken for the construction of Auckland International Airport. With the sale of the farm, Joan and Gibby, whose two sons had by now 'left home', retired to Okiato Point, just south of Russell.
Nancy Orr, Joan's twin sister, obtained her pilot's wings (one of the first females in N.Z. to do so) in the 1930's and when war broke out she wished to become an Air Force pilot -- but in those days that was "bloke's stuff", so she became a dairy herd tester instead. After the war, Nancy kept house for her bachelor- farmer brother, Dudley Orr. In 1960 Nancy married a builder, Cyril Merlon and went to live at Red Hill, Papakura. On Cyril's death Nancy moved to the Bay of Islands to join Joan and Gibby at their home. Eventually all three moved to Auckland. Sadly the ménage-a-trios ended with the deaths of Joan and Nancy in 2001, just three weeks apart after ninety years.
Bryan Ferynhough (adapted)- The Mellsop Family (page 128)
Jane's dates: Born 1875 Glenbrook, Died 1924, Papatoetoe