The envelope is small, with an inscription in black ink that reads: ‘Godfrey Briant from Aunt Grace.’ It was rediscovered in 2024 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. The inscription on the envelope puts Grace Hobbs’ gift into the period around 1961, when she and her sister Ruth Moore donated many of their Harris and Moore papers and paintings to the Taranaki Museum. Almost all of the items in Grace’s envelope carry inscriptions that identify their subjects. Some have duplicates in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique or other family collections. Some are duplicated in museum archives and others are new to us.

Thanks again to Goff and Judith Briant for permission to upload images of Aunt Grace’s photos.

Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson
March 2025

1860s

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.

 

Studio portrait of a young woman, standing, ¾ pose looking towards camera, estimated age late teens. Her hair is down, in ringlets, and she carries what looks like a beaded bag. There is a curtain and part of a chair off to the left.
Commercially printed text on front in black ink: HEATH / PLYMOUTH
Black ink handwriting on front, underneath the commercially printed text: Cousin Mary
Handwriting on reverse in black ink, same hand as the ‘Cousin Mary’ handwriting on the front: For Grace / Mary Paddon / your grandmother’s only niece
Commercially printed text on reverse: William Heath / 4 George Street / Plymouth
Black ink handwriting underneath the commercially printed text. Different ink to the other handwriting: J. G. Bullingham / Photo

Mary Mountjoy Paddon (1849-1925) was the daughter of Ann Mountjoy Paddon nee Hill. She was the only niece of Sarah Harris nee Hill and a cousin of Emily Harris. There is a similar photo of Mary Paddon in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 18, and another portrait on page 22.

 

Studio portrait of a woman standing in ¾ profile. The print is faded and torn in places, and the face is unclear. The woman wears a floor-length dress, with a jacket overtop, and holds a posy. There is a small table on her left and a curtain.
Handwriting on reverse in blue biro: Mary Harris / your grandmother

Mary Rendel Weyergang nee Harris (1845-1932) is the grandmother of Godfrey Briant, to whom Grace is giving these photos. The portrait is similar to one of Mary Weyergang in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 12, though she wears a different costume.

 

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.

1870s

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.

 

Studio portrait of Sarah Harris, seated, with her hands in a fur muff. She wears a long white bonnet or head-dress and is probably in her mid to late sixties.
Handwriting on reverse in blue biro: Grandmother Harris
Printed writing on back: Under the patronage of / His Excellency the Governor / D M Isaacs / Photographer Nelson / New Zealand

Sarah Harris (1806-1879) and her husband Edwin (1806-1895) were the grandparents of eleven Moore and Weyergang children, including Grace Hobbs and Gretchen Briant. Duplicates of the same portrait are in the Briant collection and at Nelson Provincial Museum (Davis & Nairn Collection, 6412). Another portrait from the same session shows Sarah standing, resting her elbows on the back of a chair and reading a book (Davis & Nairn Collection 6411). Duplicates of the book-reading photo are in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 1, and at Puke
Ariki Museum (PHO2018_0073).

 

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)

 

Oval portrait of 1 or 2-year old child, seated and wearing light-coloured clothing.
Printed writing on front: Webster / Photo
Handwriting on back in blue biro: Hermann Weyergang. Printed writing on reverse: Photographed by / H? Webster / New Plymouth

Carl Hermann Alexander Weyergang (1872-1932) was the son of August and Mary Weyergang, and a nephew of Emily Harris. The biro inscription is most likely by Grace Hobbs, who was Hermann’s cousin. The same photo, probably taken in 1873 or 1874, is in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 38.

 

Studio portrait of a child wearing a bonnet and overcoat trimmed with fur. There is a little statue of an elephant in the background.
Printed writing on front: Williamson & Co. / New Plymouth
Handwriting on reverse in black ink: For Aunt Ellen / July 16th 1879 / Gretchen Ellen Weyergang
Printed writing on reverse: From the studio / Williamson & Co / Photographers & Artists / New Plymouth / N.Z. / Copies may be had

Ellen Gretchen Weyergang (1875-1954) married Edgar Llewellyn Briant (1870-1934) in 1898. Gretchen was the daughter of August and Mary Weyergang. A duplicate photo is in the Harris and Weyergang Album Photographique, page 38. Aunt Ellen is Ellen Harris (1851-1895), Mary Weyergang’s sister and Gretchen’s aunt.

1890s – 1900s

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.

Houses and places

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?

 

Studio photo of Wellington. A view of buildings set against a wide dirt road.
Handwriting on reverse in pencil: Athenaeum, Scotch Church & Supreme Court House

There is a copy of the photo in the Wellington City Libraries in-house photographs collection (Ref: 50007-1-63). It is unattributed and dated c. 1880s.

 

A view looking over Wellington Harbour.
Handwriting on reverse in pencil: Wellington – From Thorndon Flat- looking South

 

Handwriting on reverse in pencil: Wellington – Grey Street & Queen’s Wharf. Showing Odd Fellows [sic] Hall & back of Provincial Govt Buildings