LIVED 104 YEARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 636, 12 April 1929, Page 16

LIVED 104 YEARS

REMARKABLE LIFE OF MRS. FRANCES WEBB UNDER FIVE SOVEREIGNS Mrs. Frances Webb, whose death at Feilding was reported yesterday at the age of 104, lived through the reign of five British Sovereigns. She celebrated her 104th birthday last month. Claimed to be the oldest European in New Zealand, Mrs. Webb had a long and varied life. She was born in Cornwall in 1825, during the reign of King George IV., and married the late Mr. William Webb in 1851. She was one of a family of seven, and her maiden name was Harris. Mi\ and Mrs. Webb left Liverpool a few days before Christmas, 1857, for Australia in the American schooner Tornado, which took six months to accomplish the voyage. Soon after arrival they proceeded to the goldfields at Bendigo, and here Mr. Webb introduced the first gold quartz crushing plant in Australia. It is interesting to note that one of Mrs. Webb’s most treasured possessions is a brooch made from the precious stone secured at Bendigo by her husband. After some years at Bendigo, Mr and Mrs. Webb came to New Zealand and they proceeded to the goldfields of Otago. From there they followed the gld rush to the West Coast, arriving in Hokitika in 1865. Many years were spent in Hokitika, but after her husband’s death there, Mrs. Webb took up her residence with the family in New Plymouth, where she lived for many years. In recent years Mrs. Webb has been living with her daughter in Feilding. Mrs. Webb could recall many interesting incidents of the early days, and right up to her death retained all her faculties, and had a fine memory. For instance, she remembered the first visit to the West Coast of Sir George Grey, Governor of the Dominion. She was in every sense of the word a pioneer.