Sign In / Register
Among the records in the Warkworth Museum archives lies an old pension application dated March 3, 1897, for Damaris Brickwood Williams. The document states she was born on July 10, 1821, in St Germans, Cornwall, and arrived in New Zealand aboard the William Denny in February 1855. This record provides a key link to her life and journey.
Damaris was the eldest of nine children, born in 1823 despite inconsistencies in recorded ages. She immigrated to Australia in 1849 with her aunt and uncle, eventually settling in Hill End, New South Wales, a Cornish mining community. In 1850, she married Zacharias Williams, a former convict transported for manslaughter who had since built a life as a farmer.
In June 1855, following Zacharias’s successful application for land in the Mahurangi district, they sailed up from Auckland to Long Beach (an early name for Snells Beach). According to Damaris’s obituary, they ‘spent their first night sleeping under a tree there being no house in the locality.’ Zacharias’s name appears several times in early New Zealand records such as the Highway Assessment Rolls, Freeholders of New Zealand 1882, Electoral Rolls, and Wises Post Office Directories, where he is listed as ‘a farmer living at Mullet Point.’ After 27 years of farming in the district with his wife, Zacharias died in the latter part of 1882.
Their only son, Thomas Parkings Williams, later moved to Australia, adopting the surname Willason. Meanwhile, their adopted daughter Ellen married local farmer John Dawson, whose 10 children became Damaris’s beloved grandchildren. After Zacharias’s death, Damaris continued farming before eventually moving in with Ellen’s family.
Damaris played an active role in building their home, working on the farm, and knitting garments for soldiers during wartime. Even at 80, she tended to her strawberry beds. She enjoyed reading and, at 97, acquired a nine-volume history of England. Despite discrepancies in official records, she was celebrated for her longevity and received many well-wishes on her 100th birthday (though she was likely 95).
She died peacefully at Ellen’s home on May 26, 1920, and was buried in Te Kapa Cemetery. Her headstone, originally larger, broke during transport when it fell into a creek. Only the top half was retrieved and placed at her grave, where it remains a testament to her pioneering spirit and resilience.
The discovery of a simple pension application in an archive has helped piece together the story of Damaris Brickwood Williams and serves as a reminder of how even the most unassuming documents can preserve the history of individuals and the legacies they leave behind.
