Story and photos by Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson

The envelope is small, opening on its right side, with an inscription in black ink that reads: ‘Godfrey Briant from Aunt Grace.’ It was rediscovered a few months ago among family files at the home of Goff and Judith Briant in Marton.

Hugh Godfrey Briant, known as Goff, was Emily Harris’s great-nephew. He was born in  1903. His son Godfrey James Winning Briant, also known as Goff, was born in 1938 and is the present owner of the envelope. It contains 14 photographs and a tiny silhouette bust portrait of a woman cut from light card.

Aunt Grace is Ella Grace Hobbs nee Moore (1878-1964). She is a first cousin once removed rather than an aunt of Goff senior and his brother Philip Briant. But the Briant brothers have always called their Taranaki cousins aunts and uncles, and there has been plenty of contact between the Moores in New Plymouth and the Briants in Marton. Roseanne Cranstone remembers car trips with her sisters in the 1950s and early 1960s when their parents Phil and Janet Briant took them to visit Aunt Ruth Moore and Aunt Grace Hobbs in their bungalow at 23 Fulford Street, close to the foot of Marsland Hill in New Plymouth. Ruth Moore (1872-1964) was Grace’s unmarried sister.

The inscription on the envelope puts Grace Hobbs’ gift into the period in 1961, when she and Ruth donated many of their Harris and Moore papers and paintings to the Taranaki Museum. The five small Harris family photos noted in the museum’s accession register as part of the donation have disappeared, making Grace’s envelope and its contents all the more precious.

Almost all of the photos in Grace’s envelope carry inscriptions that identify their subjects. We look at the portraits and places, some familiar from other photos held by the family or in museum archives, others new to us. We turn each photo over and try to identify the handwriting. Some inscriptions are in ink, some in pencil and others in blue biro. Only one item, the portrait of a young man, is without an inscription. The photos and their inscriptions are yet another source of family memory that will take time to decipher.

We present here a selection of items from Grace Hobbs’ envelope.

Studio portrait of a seated woman with hands in her lap, wearing a crinoline dress with large, draped sleeves and a lace collar. Her hair is up and she wears a headband. Her expression is demure.
Handwriting on reverse in black ink: Augusta Harris / Mrs G C Dobson / Died August 27th 1874 / From Mama’s album / the only other copy is in dear Aunt Maria’s book / EC
Handwriting on reverse in pencil: Austin Dobson’s mother
Printed writing on reverse: Photographed from Life / By / Finlayson / 62 Piccadilly / W.

Augusta Dobson nee Harris (1809-1874) was Edwin Harris’s sister and closest in age to him in their large Plymouth family. She married civil engineer George Clarisse Dobson in 1835 and was the mother of well-known Victorian poet and critic Henry Austin Dobson, Edwin’s nephew and Emily Harris’s cousin. Edwin, Sarah and Augusta stayed in touch and three of their letters from the 1840s are reproduced in ‘The Family Songbook’ (15, 17, 19). The inscription initialled EC on the reverse of the photo may have been written by Emma Court nee Harris, Augusta and Edwin’s sister. It would seem that their mother Mary Roberts Harris nee Good (1774-1850) and her unmarried sister Maria Good (1794-1875), both owned albums that have since disappeared.

 

A very faded head and shoulders photo of a young girl, maybe 14-16 years old, looking straight ahead. Her hair is down and she wears a white lace collar.
Printed writing on front: W Davis / Photo / Nelson
Handwriting on reverse in blue biro: Aunt Augusta

Augusta Harris (1848-1870) was a younger sister of Emily Harris who died aged 22. She is buried in the Harris family plot at Wakapuaka, Nelson. She was Grace Hobbs’ aunt and this is the only extant photograph we know of, probably taken when she was in her teens. It seems likely that Augusta was named for her paternal aunt, Augusta Dobson nee Harris.

 

Oval bust portrait of Emily Harris (1837-1925). Her hair is piled up on one side and topped by an elaborate comb and she wears teardrop earrings. Her eyes are strikingly pale. Her dress is dark with white lace at the throat and there is flowery edging on the seams at the neckline and on the shoulder where it meets the sleeve.
Printed writing on front: Isaacs / Photo / Nelson
Handwriting on reverse in blue biro: Aunt Emily

Perhaps the best-known photo of Emily Harris (1837-1925), with duplicates in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 1, and at Puke Ariki (PHO2008-305). Like the portrait of her mother Sarah (above), the photo is from the studio of David Morris Isaacs, (c.1824-1909). Isaacs advertised his photographic business in Trafalgar Street, Nelson, between 1869 and 1876, when it was bought by photographer Frank Nairn. From Sarah’s description of her daughter, we know that Emily had blue eyes: ‘In March 1837 my little daughter Emily Cumming was born. She was a very pretty child with large blue eyes, could read easy words at two years old. She was born in England, Plymouth, Devon.’ (‘The Family Songbook’ 1)

 

Bust portrait of a young man looking straight ahead. He is clean-shaven and wears a shirt with a collar pointed upwards and a large knotted tie.
Printed writing on reverse: S. W. King / Eltham

There is no identifying inscription on the photo, but a comparison with the same portrait in Roseanne Cranstone’s collection confirms that the subject is Otto Philip August Weyergang (1878-1918). Otto was the son of August and Mary Weyergang. He was killed on the Somme in June 1818, fighting with the First New Zealand Expeditionary force. Before the war he was an orchardist in Havelock North, a keen photographer and took part in amateur theatricals. The Eltham studio mark confirms that this photo was taken when Otto was in Taranaki in the late 1890s and early 1900s, working on the Weyergang farm at Ngaere.

Then there are photos that remain mysterious despite our best efforts to understand their subject matter.

Studio photo of a two-storey house with a picket fence. A woman and a child stand by the gate, a man stands to the right.
Handwriting on reverse in black ink: The old home in in Nelson / 34 Nile Street East / Built 1863

The inscription appears to leave little room for doubt that this photo depicts the Harris family home in Nile Street, Nelson. But a problem occurs when the inscribed photo is compared with a watercolour painted by Nelson artist Hugh Scott in the 1920s and inscribed on the reverse by Grace’s sister Constance Moore (1866-1942) as a depiction of the Harris home. The photo and the watercolour show different houses. If we knew who inscribed the photo, it might be possible to determine which building is 34 Nile Street.

 

Studio photo of a house on card with red borders.
Handwriting in blue biro on reverse: “Isleden” / Richmond / Nelson / Mothers’ home

Isleden, located on Queen Street in Richmond, was the family home of flour-miller and baker John Martin Croucher. His second wife, Matilda Gustavo Kelling, was a gifted teacher and musician. Her daughter Ethel Louise Croucher (1885-1971) was born at Isleden and became a noted violinist, returning often to Richmond to visit her mother. Could Louise Croucher be the writer of the inscription? And is there some link to the Moores and Harrises?

Finally, there is the silhouette portrait of Sarah Harris’s sister Ann Paddon, a cut-out representation of the sitter:

Silhouette of bust cut out of light manilla card and coloured black. There is a dash of white denoting a comb or other decoration in the swept up hair, but no other details have been added. The face and neck are black, the covered shoulder is white and has been pasted on. This lower part of the cut-out is a double layer.
Separate label, might also be manilla card, with black ink handwriting: Ann Paddon Grandmother’s sister
Envelope with right side opening, very small, perhaps for storing contact prints. Black ink handwriting, rather shaky and different from writing on label inside: 37 / Ann Paddon / Grandmother’s sister
Note: the number 37 is upside down and probably indicates an earlier use of the envelope.

Ann Mountjoy Paddon nee Hill (1808-1887), was Sarah Harris’s sister and Grace’s great aunt. She married accountant Francis William Paddon in Plymouth in 1833 and had a son, also Francis William, and a daughter, Mary Mountjoy Paddon. Her silhouette bust portrait has been cut from manilla card and painted black with the shoulder of a white dress pasted on. The silhouette and its label are preserved in their own small envelope which has been inscribed in black ink by two different hands. There is a portrait of Ann Paddon in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 22.

To see the full contents of Grace Hobbs’ envelope, see Godfrey Briant from Aunt Grace: 14 photos and a silhouette, our most recent addition to the Harris family section of the website. Some of our identifications are provisional and depend on further research for confirmation of what we think we are looking at.

Thanks again to Goff and Judith Briant for permission to upload images of Aunt Grace’s photos. More about family photos, Otto Weyergang, Ann and Mary Paddon, 34 Nile Street, Ella Grace Hobbs and Ruth Moore below.

Harris Weyergang Album Photographique
https://emilycummingharris.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/harris-family/family-album/

Otto Weyergang Writes Home
https://emilycummingharris.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2019/05/23/otto-weyergang-writes-home/

Shedding some light on the Plymouth Paddons
https://emilycummingharris.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2019/07/25/shedding-some-light-on-the-plymouth-paddons/

34 Nile St, Nelson
https://emilycummingharris.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2019/09/05/34-nile-st-nelson/

Nile Street again
https://emilycummingharris.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2019/10/03/nile-street-again/

Dot Moore writes from New Zealand, 1910
https://emilycummingharris.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2019/11/28/dot-moore-writes-from-new-zealand-1910/