16/11/2016 [email protected]79 Ernest Ducker Ernest was born on the 21 st November 1870 and was baptised in Haxey at the Westwoodside Primitive Methodist Chapel on 13 th December 1870 (on the same occasion as his elder sister Ada.) (Combined Isle of Axholme Methodist Baptisms 1/10/2002 Axholme FHS) The first reference to Ernest in the Taranaki Herald is his appearance in the New Plymouth Sash and Door football team in 1889. Ernest was nearly 19 then and perhaps he was working with his father, for the Sash and Door Company. In 1892 Ernest married Mary Ellen Rawlinson, the sister of John Rawlinson who had married Ada in the previous year. Taranaki Herald 16 January 1892 The following year their daughter Ivy Myrtle was born in Auckland. 1893/10405 Ducker Ivy Myrtle Mary Ellen Ernest (NZ BDM Online) Evidently within a couple of years Ernest had abandoned the marriage. Under the headline “Mrs. E. Ducker in Distress” the Taranaki Herald reported that Mary Ellen made an application to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board: Taranaki Herald 20 th August 1895 Publicity such as this, in a local newspaper, must have caused embarrassment to the Duckers. That the situation was allowed to occur suggests a serious rift within the family. Mary Ellen went back to Panmure (then on the outskirts of Auckland) which was the home of her parents, the Rawlinsons.
Janet Fleming has said that Mary Ellen (Nell) lived with her parents some of the time,
and that school records for Panmure School show that the daughter, Ivy Myrtle,
“came and went several times and it seemed mainly between Panmure and Sydney so
presumably to see her father……Ivy Myrtle’s next of kin for school records was her
grandmother on several occasions.”
In 1903, when Ivy Myrtle was 10 years of age, things came to a head and Mary Ellen
went to Court seeking a divorce from Ernest.
Supreme Court Sessions. Taranaki Herald, 3 March 1903
The case was reported at length.
In Mary Ellen’s evidence, Ernest had been a cooper when they were living in New
Plymouth. They did not get along very happily.
Evidently their domestic quarrels were over money, and the couple’s lack of a home
of their own. Mary Ellen was reported as stating that Ernest was under-age when they
were married,15 and they were living across the road from Ernest’s parents, in a home
provided for them in trust by the parents. (The newspaper article seems to suggest that
James Ducker was holding the title of the property “in trust” for his son Ernest
because he was under-age, but this is not correct and can not have been the reason.)
Whatever the reason, Mary Ellen when on to state that they were paying the interest
and most of Ernest’s money was going to the parents “making a difference to their
own home.”
This contentious issue had been made worse by the fact that when Mary Ellen wanted
the property to be put into Ernest’s name,16 part of the property was then conveyed to
her brother John Rawlinson (who had married Ada Ducker) and eventually the rest
was sold to a stranger. It does seem that Mary Ellen was somewhat alienated from the
Ducker family, in fact in her evidence she stated as much. It is quite possible that
during these troubles, Ernest was “on the outer” with his parents too.
Ernest was unsettled at that time. In 1895 he had left Mary Ellen and gone to work in
Warea, a few miles away. By 1898 was in Australia. By 1902 he was back in
Taranaki working at Rohatu. Various attempts were made by Mary Ellen to get
money and support from Ernest, but in the words of her brother John “…after the
bickerings and long separation, he did not think his sister and her husband would live
happily together again for any length of time….”
Hawera & Normanby Star, 10 March 1903
15 I think this is a mistake made by the reporter. Mary Ellen had already stated (correctly) that when
they were married Ernest was 21 and she was 20.
Mary Ellen may have stated that she was under age when they were married. 16 Perhaps the trigger for this conflict was Mary Ellen “coming of age” – not Ernest as reported.
After the divorce, Mary Ellen Ducker married Charles Edward Smith.
The daughter Ivy Myrtle appears to have taken the name Smith.
Ivy Myrtle (Ducker)
(Smith) died in 1932
Auckland Star 30 May 1932,
The headstone in the Panmure cemetery has the date of Ivy Myrtle’s death incorrect.
(Photograph from Karen Erni)
Four years after the divorce from Mary Ellen Rawlinson,
Ernest Ducker re-married, to Lilia Croon.
Lilia Croon was a daughter of George Croon who had emigrated to New Zealand at
about the age of 11, with his father George Francis (Frank) Croon.
According to the1861 UK census George Croon was born in Cold Waltham, Sussex,
around 1854 and his father Geo. F. Croon (Frank Croon) was a “House Joiner.”
There is a younger brother, Francis C. Croon, and the mother’s name is Elizabeth.17
We do not know what became of the younger brother, or Elizabeth.
The two George Croons (father and son) emigrated together on the ship Pegasus,
departing Gravesend on 22nd Dec.1864 and arriving in Auckland on 28th Mar 1865.18
The passenger list, second cabin
and steerage, includes:
Significantly, the list of
assisted passengers includes also:
17 George F. Croon (Frank) married Elizabeth Smith in 1853. Information from Karen Erni. 18 Details of voyage, and passenger list may be found in Daily Southern Cross, 29 March 1865
George Croon the son was about 11 years old when he arrived in New Zealand, and
there is no record now of his first few years.
However there must be an interesting
story to be found here, because it was
thought his father may have joined the
colonial forces, and enquiries
regarding his wherabouts were made
by the Colonial Defence Office.
(In 1865 the war in the Waikato was
over, but the second Taranaki war had
commenced, and uprisings had also
broken out on the East Coast.)
Lyttelton Times, 19 September 1867
In fact, in October 1867 George (Frank) Croon was established in Opotiki.19
In 1870, the Daily Southern Cross, 19 March, reported intense fighting in the vicinity
of Opitiki, causing great fear to the residents, of an attack by the notorious Te Kooti.
Frank Croon’s property was adjacent to the garrison redoubt and a bank was knocked
down to make it part of a defensive line. These were interesting times.
George’s father, by now usually
known as Frank Croon, became
established and well-known as a
builder in Opotiki from at least 1867,
until his death in 1884.
Karen Erni writes: “Between 1867 and
1883 Frank Croon and Mary Jane
Boyd had eight children…...”
There are numerous newspaper records of
Frank Croon, building contractor of
Opotiki, including reports of the tragic
deaths of two of his children
(one by drowning at age about 4 and the
other by “congestion of the brain” at 11),
and of his own death in 1884.
(Image held by Whakatane Museum, copy from Terry Hollis)
Frank Croon and Mary Jane Boyd (nee Wilson) registered their marriage in 1881.
George Croon (jnr) married Elizabeth Wood in 1878 (NZ BDM Online)
1878/2553 Elizabeth Wood George Croon
The marriage was said to have been in Wanganui, and George Croon was reported in
the newspaper as a builder, working in Wanganui in 1880 and 1883.20
By July 1883 George and Elizabeth Croon had moved from Wanganui to Opotiki
and George, now 30, became established there as a builder.21
19 30th Oct 1867 a dispute in Opotiki involving Mr. Frank Croon (NZ Archives, Auck. ref R24121386) 20 Wanganui Herald, 29 December 1880 and Wanganui Herald, 3 March 1883
Also George Croon, recorded as carpenter, Wanganui, in Electoral Roll 1880/81 21 Bay of Plenty Times , 26 July 1883,
Perhaps it was to take over from his father, Frank.
(Frank Croon died in July the following year, “after a long illness.”)22
Recorded births of George and Elizabeth Croon NZ BDM Online
1880/18425 Croon Elizabeth May Elizabeth George
1882/6170 Croon Frank Elizabeth George
1883/18180 Croon Amy Elizabeth George
1885/10140 Croon Lilia Elizabeth George
1891/13044 Croon Harry Elizabeth George
(Harry Croon died in 1892, aged 8 months. NZ BDM Online)
In addition there were two more children whose births were not registered:
Alma born in 1887, and George born in 1889. (Information from Karen Erni)
In 1891, when Lilia Croon was 6 years old, her mother died.23
George Croon re-married, to Alice Helen Bigg in 189224 NZ BDM Online
1892/2945 Alice Helen Bigg George Croon
Lilia Croon thus grew up in Opotiki, the daughter of George Croon, builder,
and her step-mother Alice Helen (prev. Bigg.)25
…………………………………………………
(Names and dates of children of Frank Croon and Mary Jane Boyd provided by Karen Erni)
Ernest Ducker, last reported in 1902 working in Rohatu, Taranaki, now appears on
the electoral roll in Opotiki, working as a sawmill hand. (Bay of Plenty Electorate 1905/06).
It may not be a coincidence that during this time Ernest’s newly-married brother
Frank Ducker also shifted to Opotiki, probably around 1904/05.
Frank had purchased an island in the nearby Ohiwa Harbour, but for the time being he
and his wife Lily were living near to Opotiki in the small settlement of Ohiwa.
22 Bay of Plenty Times, 12 June 1884, Page 3 23 Elizabeth Croon (nee Wood) b. 8 Dec 1856 Gloucester d. 12 Dec 1891. (Research of Terry Hollis.) 24 Alice Helen Bigg nee Beaumont marriage took place on 22 Dec 1892 (Research of Terry Hollis) 25 In 1905 George Croon shifted to Te Puke (Bay of Plenty Times, 3 November 1905.)
He died in 1931, and Alice Helen died in 1946, both buried in Te Puke (Te Puke Cemetery record)
