The writing on the envelope says ‘Grandmother’s letters.’ The writer is Gretchen Briant and her grandmother is Sarah Harris. Inside the envelope, neatly folded, are four typed letters on foolscap, copies of letters written by Sarah from New Plymouth in 1841 and 1843. They describe the family’s voyage from England, the loss of a fourth child and the early days of settlement on the North Taranaki coast. The first three are addressed to Sarah’s father and sisters, who live in Plymouth, Devon. The fourth is addressed to Sarah’s older sister Emma Hill, a school teacher living in Liskeard, Cornwall. The letters must have been precious beyond belief when they arrived in their original form: the first news from New Zealand from a part of the family those in England would never see again.
We have read all four letters as carbon copies at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Extracts from them also appear in My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates, the compendium of writing by 19th century women in Aotearoa New Zealand published by Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald in 1996.
But top copies of the letters came to light only recently when Gretchen’s granddaughter in law Judith Briant discovered them late last year at the family home in Marton.
We were delighted to find that the family held top copies of Sarah’s early letters and assumed that they matched the carbons at Turnbull. However, a glance at the letters in Gretchen’s envelope showed that the typings come from different machines and appear on different kinds of paper. Some letters in the envelope are double-spaced and have red margin rules. The Turnbull carbons are all single-spaced and have no margins. What is going on?
To answer the question, even provisionally, means tracing interactions between English and New Zealand parts of the Harris family over more than a century and a half. We present here the upshot of these investigations in the form of a timeline that shows how not one but two sets of Sarah Harris’s letters were typed and distributed among family members in New Zealand.
Images of the typings in Gretchen’s envelope appear below, with notes on provenance and links to their transcripts in ‘The Family Songbook’ (2019).
Thanks to Goff and Judith Briant for permission to upload another important part of the Harris family papers. Thanks also to Libby Baker for a repeat visit to Puke Ariki to check watermarks and to Brianna Vincent for searching out watermarks and annotations on the letters in Gretchen’s envelope.
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson
March 2025
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Timeline in progress
30 March 1841: Harris family arrives in New Plymouth on Plymouth Company vessel William Bryan.
20 April 1841: Sarah Harris writes to father William Hill and sisters (letter 1).
13 November 1841: Sarah writes to father William Hill (letter 2).
6 and 18 January 1843: Sarah writes to father William Hill (letter 3).
[January 1843]: Sarah writes to sister Emma Hill (letter 4).
24 October 1866: Death of Emma Hill in Liskeard, Cornwall; New Zealand letters pass to Emma and Sarah’s younger sister Ann Mountjoy Paddon in London. (‘The Family Songbook’ 32)
1871 UK census shows Ann and daughter Mary Mountjoy Paddon living at 10 Horbury Crescent, Kensington.
19 July 1880: Birth of Mary Gertrude Pullen, baptised 10 September 1880 at St Stephen, Paddington; home address 10 Horbury Crescent.
1881 UK census: Ann Paddon, 10 Horbury Crescent, Chelsea, gives her occupation as lodging house keeper.
1887: Death of Ann Mountjoy Paddon in London. Daughter Mary Paddon disposes of many family letters: ‘I had scores & scores of letters from the family which were addressed to a sister of Mrs Harris, Miss Emma Jane Hill, Liskeard, Cornwall, England. After her death they were sent to my mother Mrs Paddon, 10 Horbury Crescent, Notting Hill, London but when our house was given up shortly before my mother’s death, I had to destroy all superfluous papers etc. and for a time I corresponded with one of the daughters, I think Emily, the eldest.’ (‘The Family Songbook’ 32)
September 1891: Four Sarah Harris letters are typed from MS originals, perhaps by Mary Paddon, and sent by her to the Harris family in Nelson. Emily Harris annotates letters 1 and 4, making corrections from MS originals.
Q: Did Mary Paddon send MS as well as TS letters to New Zealand?
A: Yes, though we don’t know exactly when.
1891: Mary Paddon gives her occupation as typist in UK census; also in 1901 and 1911.
11 August 1922: Mary Gertrude Pullen leaves Southampton for New Zealand, where she will live permanently in Wellington, making several return visits to England and staying with members of the Paddon family in London.
24 December 1922: Mary Paddon signs and dates a note about her Harris family connections. She mentions early letters from New Zealand recording the family’s arrival: ‘and as the letters state landed in New Plymouth.’ She refers to Miss Demspey, Miss Pullen and Mrs Fabling.: ‘It is very kind of Miss Dempsey to take so much trouble – of course I feel interested & Miss Pullen & Mrs J. Fabling are such old friends that we look on each other as almost belonging to same family.’ (‘The Family Songbook’ 32)
Q: Who is Miss Dempsey?
A: We don’t know.
Q: Who are Miss Pullen and Mrs J Fabling?
A: Mary Pullen and Beatrice Marguerite (Daisy) fabling were cousins. Daisy Fabling (1882-1984) married New Zealand soldier James Fabling in 1919 and returned with him to live in Wellington. Her cousin Mary Pullen (1880-1975) lived with the Fablings in Miramar from the 1930s.
5 August 1925: Emily Harris dies in Nelson. Her sister Mary Weyergang takes top copies of the letters, which pass to her daughter Gretchen Briant after Mary’s death in 1932.
10 April 1954: Gretchen Briant dies in Marton, family artwork and papers pass to her sons Philip and Godfrey Briant. When Godfrey dies in 1968, family papers, including Sarah’s four letters, pass to his son, also Godfrey (Goff).
1961: Ruth Moore and Grace Hobbs donate Harris family letters to the Taranaki Museum. Among them are the MS original of Sarah’s letter of 20 April 1841 (P) and the incomplete 1891 typing of her letter of 13 Nov 1841 (R).
Q: So another part of the family had MS and TS versions of the letters?
A: Yes.
15 June 1976: Alexander Turnbull Library receives four carbon copy letters by Sarah Harris, donated by Mrs BM Fabling, Wellington, from the estate of Mary Gertrude Pullen, who died aged 95 in Wellington in 1975. Mary Paddon’s note of December 1922 accompanies the donation. Turnbull, MS-Papers-3761.
November 2024: Judith Briant finds four top copies of Sarah’s letters among family papers at the Briants’ home in Marton. Three are 1891 typings. The fourth derives from an 1891 typing but has been made on a different machine. It matches exactly the carbon of the same letter at Turnbull.
Q: Does Gretchen Briant’s envelope contain top copies from 1891 and a later typing of Sarah’s letters?
A: Yes. The family had access to not one but two typings of the letters. They also had MS originals sent from England by Mary Paddon.
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Letter 1 : Sarah Harris to father William Hill and sisters. Off the shores of Taranaki, 20 April 1841
Typed transcript of MS letter to father William Hill and sisters, Plymouth, England. Written off the shores of Taranaki, NZ, 20 April 1841. Typed annotation: ‘Copied September 1891.’ Briant collection, Marton.
The first 1891 typing, three pages on Regent Linen WS & B foolscap, though no watermarks are discernible. Each page has a red double margin rule at left and a single red rule at right. The typing is double-spaced and there are numbers at the foot of pages 2 and 3. The typist is transcribing Sarah Harris’s MS letter, now in the Harris collection at Puke Ariki (ARC2002-190, P). There are corrections in pen and pencil on page 2 made by Emily Harris from the MS original.
Letter 1 has a carbon copy at the Alexander Turnbull Library, typed on foolscap watermarked Invicta Bond. It is single-spaced, numbered on page 2 and without margin rules. Turnbull, MS-Papers-3761.
A full transcript of the letter, based on the original MS, appears with notes in ‘The Family Songbook’ 3.
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Letter 2: Sarah Harris to father William Hill. New Plymouth, 13 November 1841
Typed transcript of MS letter to father William Hill, Plymouth, England. Written in New Plymouth, NZ, 13 Nov 1841. Typing date unknown. Briant collection, Marton.
A top copy typing, two pages on Invicta Bond foolscap, though no watermarks are discernible. There are no margin rules and the typing is single-spaced, with large gaps between sentences. A page number appears at the top of page 2 and some typed corrections have been made in red. The typist is copying the 1891 typing of the same letter, now in the Harris collection at Puke Ariki (ARC2002-190, R).
Letter 2 has a carbon copy at the Alexander Turnbull Library, typed on foolscap watermarked Invicta Bond, numbered on page 2, and matching exactly the top copy in the Briant collection. Turnbull, MS-Papers-3761.
A full transcript of the letter, based on the Turnbull typing, appears with notes in ‘The Family Songbook’ 6.
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Letter 3: Sarah Harris to father William Hill. New Plymouth, 6 and 18 January 1843
Typed transcript of MS letter to father William Hill, Plymouth, England. Written in New Plymouth, NZ, 6 and 18 Jan 1843. Typed annotation: ‘copied September 1891.’ Briant collection, Marton.
The third 1891 typing, part of five pages of foolscap watermarked Regent Linen WS & B. Each page has a red double margin rule at left and a single red rule at right. The typing is double-spaced and pages 2-5 are numbered. Pages 1-4 carry Sarah’s letter to her father. Pages 4-5 carry a letter to her sister Emma Hill. There are corrections in pencil on pages 1 and 2 made by Emily Harris from the MS original.
Letter 3 has a carbon copy at the Alexander Turnbull Library, typed on foolscap watermarked Invicta Bond. It is single-spaced, numbered on page 2 and without margin rules. Turnbull, MS-Papers-3761.
A full transcript of the letter, based on the Turnbull typing, appears with notes in ‘The Family Songbook’ 10.
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Letter 4: Sarah Harris to sister Emma Jane Hill. New Plymouth, [January 1843]
Typed transcript of MS letter to sister Emma Jane Hill, England. Written in New Plymouth, NZ, [Jan 1843]. Part of typescript copied September 1891. Briant collection, Marton.
The fourth 1891 typings, part of five pages of foolscap watermarked Regent Linen WS & B. Each page has a red double margin rule at left and a single red rule at right. The typing is double-spaced and pages 2-5 are numbered. Pages 1-4 carry Sarah’s letter to her father. Pages 4-5 carry a letter to her sister Emma Hill. There is an annotation in pencil on page 4 made by Emily Harris. In the margin near Sarah’s comment ‘The Bishop was here three months since, and christened our baby Frances Emma,’ Emily has written: ‘I think this was Bishop Selwyn.’
Letter 4 has a carbon copy at the Alexander Turnbull Library, typed on foolscap watermarked Invicta Bond. It is single-spaced, numbered on page 2 and without margin rules. Turnbull, MS-Papers-3761.
A full transcript of the letter, based on the Turnbull typing, appears with notes in ‘The Family Songbook’ 11.
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Letter fragment: Sarah Harris to father William Hill. New Plymouth, 6 and 18 January 1843
Sarah Harris to father William Hill. New Plymouth, 6 and 18 January 1843, first page. Typing date unknown. Briant collection, Marton.
A fragmentary top copy typing of Sarah’s January 1843 letter to her father on foolscap watermarked Invicta Bond. Like letter 2, the typing is single-spaced, with large gaps between sentences, and the paper has no margin rules or a page number. Some typed corrections have been made in red.
The fragment matches exactly the first page of the carbon of letter 3 at the Alexander Turnbull Library (MS-Papers-3761).