Born on 24 April 1863, probably in her parents home, the first child of John Thomas and Charlotte Elisabeth (nee Crispe), of "Knockmaroon" Glenbrook, Waiuku East. She spent her early years in the Waiuku district and was most probably educated at home as there was not a school in the Glenbrook district in those days. She was always known as "Minnie" and the words used to describe her by those who remember her are, in every case the same: calm, cheerful, smiling, uncomplaining. She was a wonderful worker, always had a smile for everyone and never an unkind word to say. She must have been a treasure to her hard working pioneering parents, and was much loved by her younger nine brothers and sisters. When she was twenty she was invited to accompany a certain Captain Hart, his wife and daughter to Tahiti as a companion for their daughter. It was probable that Captain Hart had been on a ship, which had called regularly at Tahiti with him making the acquaintance of the Henry family there. Mrs Hart had correspondence with Mrs Isabella Henry, widow of Samuel Henry II, who was grandson of the Reverend William Henry and his first wife Sarah. The couple being among the first pally of missionary to travel to the Pacific. Mrs Isabella Henry had several daughters and one son, and one can imagine her wanting to see her son marry into a sound British family rather than a French or Tahitian. So the two mothers tried to do a little matching making. It might have worked had the Harts not taken the vivacious Mary Mellsop along. The Henry son, Samuel III, was captivated by and falling in love with the wrong girl! All four returned to New Zealand and one wonders if on the boat journey back relations between the Harts and Mary were a little strained. Sam Henry III wrote to John Thomas Mellsop requesting his daughter's hand in marriage. Later Sam, anxiously waiting for word from New Zealand that Mary's parents had given their approval to the engagement of the young couple, was visited by the local gendarme, doubling as the Post Office messenger, with a telegram. At the time Sam was standing on the top step of a stepladder, pruning a tree in his orchard at "Maara" when the messenger handed the telegram, containing the long awaited good news, forgetting where he was, he threw his hands up in the air as he jumped with joy, landing heavily on the ground! Mary set sail again for Tahiti this time alone. The farewell with her family must have been poignant. Had this innocent country girl from a strict Christian background any idea of what she was going to? It had been a highly romantic, the whirlwind courtship, love under the palms by the mirroring lagoon. Had her parents known, would they have let her go? But weren't the Henrys an established British family with a missionary background? Hadn't they been close friends of Samuel Marsden hence the name. Yes, but the family had lived in close contact for generations with a people with other standards, other attitudes, and culture. Sam Henry spoke English, French, and Tahitian with equal fluency as did most of the English community therefore Mary would have heard only what she was intended to hear. The young couple were married on 16th April 1885 at "Maara" Mary was eight days from turning 23 years of age. It has not been recorded what form the wedding took but it is certain that the Tahitians would not have let the wedding of their beloved 'Tammy' (Sammy) pass without a feast and perhaps dancing-hulas to the rap beat of wooden drums. Did Mary think of the little wooden church at Mauku, and familiar family faces? Did she suddenly feel all-alone in a strange world or was she so rapt with Sam Henry that nothing else mattered? One thing is for sure there would have been some disappointed wahines in Tahiti. The young couple lived with Sam's mother, Isabella, his father dying when he was four years old. Little is known of those years except that they lived in a presentable European style house and there would have been no lack of food for Tahiti had long been a port of call for sailing ship on account of the abundance of food. For the last year in Tahiti Sam was plantation manager at the Farepiti sugar mill near Papeete, for his old friend MrJ L Young. Mary was concerned about the moral and spiritual well being of her young family, and prevailed upon her husband to emigrate to New Zealand. There would have been assurances from the Mellsop family that they would render them all possible assistance, which they did. The reason they gave for the departure was Sam and Mary wanted their children: Ernest, Osmond, Percy, and baby Ruth to attend English-speaking schools. So in early September 1 894 they embarked on the Richmond a sail and steam ship of 71 5 tons under the command of Captain Hutton, with Jock Stuart (Sheila Hyde's uncle) as engineer. Laden with parting gifts, surrounded by kissing friends and relations, it was now Sam's turn to farewell his home land and make a new start in a country where little did he guess, he would be regarded as a foreigner. They were to be joined at a later date by Sam's mother Mrs Isabella Henry. The Henry family arrived in Auckland at 9am on 29th October 1894. being met by Mary's father John Thomas Mellsop. The first task was to get their belongings through customs. Mary had been entrusted with numbering the cases and listing the contents of each. but in the confusion of packing a mistake had been made and the first one opened did not contain what was on the list. The Custom Officer became suspicious and had every package opened and carefully examined. Only those who knew Sam well could imagine what the atmosphere was like around the family's unpacked belongings, which by this time were scattered all over the goods shed. This ordeal over, the atmosphere cleared and they were soon on their way to Onehunga where they boarded the small vessel "Weka' for Waiuku. They were met at Woodwards Wharf (now the Needles) by Maw's younger brother, Ossie and from there all six of the Henry family, Mary's father with boxes, baskets. and luggage galore, were taken in an old springless dray to ' Knockmaroon the Mellsop homestead at Glenbrook. After settling Sam, with the invaluable help of the Mellsop's purchased 160 acres of very good land from Bothwell Park Smith, midway between Muir's lake at Whiri Whiri and Otaua. There were no fences and seventy-five percent of the area was covered with heavy native bush. The balance was strewn with puriri stumps and fern. The only access was two miles across paddocks from Muir's lake with a number of gates or slip-rails to negotiate. A little later a cross-country entrance was established from the Otaua side, about the same distance with similar condition. There were no formed roads and it was just a matter of picking the best grades or following the sheep tracks. After several years Bothwell Park Road was opened from Otaua, though the surface was very rough, it eliminated all the gates and most of the hills. Sam's first task was to build a house and cowshed, and as he never did things by halves, he built a good roomy house, with timber and iron being carted from Waiuku by bullock wagon, each six-mile trip taking about four hours. On completion of the house, the cowshed was built entirely including the shingles for the roof from timber spilt in the bush. Some milking cows were acquired and they foraged in the bush until pastures were established. There were also horses, pigs, and fowls. Economic survival was now the name of the game, and the two eldest sons, aged nine and seven years were co-opted into the workforce before and after school, even though they had a three-mile walk through bush and over paddocks to get there. At this stage there were many battles between Sam and Mary over the children not getting enough sleep but Sam was desperate. He got down to his last shilling (ten cents) and the Bank would not extend his credit. He spent the shilling on a bag of broken biscuits. Many were the times he wanted to give up and return to Tahiti but Mary always talked him out of it. Her children used to say of her, "Mother never complained". Certainly she had a cheerful, uncomplaining disposition but to complain would have been just the excuse Sam needed to return to Tahiti. The neighbouring farmers commented to each other, "It wont be long before he goes back to where he came from." There were two more boys born during those years but eventually hard work, perseverance along with thrift began to pay off. Mary spent her days completing household chores for her family of five big boys and one girl. She baked all her own bread, made butter and preserves. There was no household help in those days. Regardless of their financial straits Mary and Sam kept open house for friends and relatives, many from Tahiti stayed not merely for days but for weeks sometimes months. Being a very sociable person who allowed nothing to ruffle her calm and never permitting the house to be her master Mary probably enjoyed the company. By 1905 the whole of the 160 acres having been cleared, grassed and subdivided with water laid to every paddock, Sam realized that it was too small to keep himself and his three eldest sons fully occupied. So a proposition was put to the boys that Bothwell Park Road property should be sold and to buy 400 acres at Aka Aka, on which the four of them would work on an equal partnership basis. The boys agreed to the proposal, so the farm was sold to two of Mary’s brothers, part to Ossie Mellsop and the balance Lionel Mellsop, enabling the purchase of the Aka Aka farm. Over the next eight years, gradually the 400 ac was divided between the four partners. Sam eventually being left with sixty-eight acres which he sold and in 1913 he and Mary bought the Elbow, Puni moving there with the three youngest children. While living on the Aka Aka property, ever Sunday Mary would have her horse and gig ready to drive her grandchildren to Sunday School, which she taught in the local hall. She had great faith and was a very good Christian, reading her bible regularly. The Puni farm was one hundred acres, on the left hand side of the Elbow Road, Sam soon bought another one hundred and twenty acres on the other side of the road. Both these properties were unimproved so he set to work in his usual industrious manner to drain the land, grub the blackberries and build a cowshed to get production going as quickly as possible. When Elmo (fourth son), decided to marry, he took over the one hundred and twenty acres from his father. So Sam with the assistance of a carpenter, built a house for the soon to be married couple. The carpenter spun a rosy tale to Sam about investing in a "get rich quick" scheme of a granite quarry at Taurikura, Whangarei Heads. So about 1920 Sam sold their homestead farm at the Elbow Rd, invested one thousand pounds in the quarry and he and Mary retired to a nice beach front home at Kohimarama, Auckland. Unfortunately the granite quarry venture failed and Sam decided to buy out the other shareholders. Their youngest son, Les, had by now left school, so Sam, Mary and Les moved once more, this time to Taurikura onto the fifty acres of mainly bush covered mountainside sloping down to gorse infested escarpment, on which was the quarry, and to a lovely sheltered cove with a homestead facing Urquharts Bay, Whangarei Heads. After a lifetime of hard toil breaking in three farms in New Zealand, he set to once again to try and save something from the granite venture. But fate was against them because although the granite was good quality it had flaws which meant that it was difficult to produce blocks of it large enough for monumental headstones free from shakes. They decided to discontinue the venture, and instead fence the property and grub the gorse. Back to farming was the order of the day. In 1924, saw Mary and Sam make their final move, this time to a small property at Arkles Bay, Whangaparoa Peninsula. Once more Sam found he had a lot of hard work ahead of him. The gorse had to be cleared and the property fenced but he set about it with a will. Mary was as hospitable as ever, and now had her grandchildren to stay for long holidays and took them for picnic to the various beaches nearby. At this point her eldest granddaughter Dorothy Shaw (nee Henry) started to spend a lot of time with Mary as help in the house. Mary's health was failing and she was not able to do all that she had to. Sam proved to be a wonderful husband, very attentive to her wants. She lived on raw food for twenty years or more and he kept her well supplied with vegetables she needed from his marvelIous garden. In 1934 Mary under went a big operation in Auckland, but unfortunately she did not recover and passed away in October of that year age seventy-one years. Sam missed her terribly and he said afterwards that she had never said an unkind word to him in all the forty-nine years of their married life, but he said "I often gave her cause to." Mary was buried in the Waiuku Cemetery alongside Sam's mother (Isabelle Henry) and where he was also after his death in 1939 aged seventy-seven years. Sam and Mary could have been very comfortably off in their later years but they had given everything away to help their children get established.
Minnie Henry with youngest child Les
Taken from the book "The Mellsop Family" complied by Rosalie-Ann Nicholson - 2004