Margaret Torrens Stewart (née Miller) (1835-1914)

Margaret Torrens Stewart (née Miller) was the wife of Katikati founder George Vesey Stewart. They had nine children together before George made an application for divorce, citing Margaret’s adultery with her 19-year-old nephew by marriage. Story researched, written and published by Debbie McCauley.

Margaret Torrens Miller was born at Desertlyn in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on 29 March 1835. Her parents were John Rowley Miller (1808-1862) (J.P.) and Emily Charlotte Miller (née Stewart) (c. 1799-1883).

John Rowley Miller was the son of Maj. Rowley Miller (J.P.). Rowley Miller was Agent for the Draperers’ Company of London, and managed their Moneymore Estate in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Upon his death, the position of Agent passed to Margaret’s brother Henry Rowley Miller.

On 17 April 1856 Margaret married George Vesey Stewart (1831-1920) in St John’s Desertlynn Church of Ireland at Moneymore. They and their nine children aged between 2 and 19 left Belfast on 8 June 1875 on board the Carisbrooke Castle, which carried 238 settlers bound for Katikati in New Zealand’s North Island. The ship arrived in New Zealand on 8 September 1875.

The children of Margaret Torrens Stewart (née Miller) and George Vesey Stewart

  1. Surtees, Emily Charlotte Sophia (née Stewart) (1857-1957) Born at Moneymore in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland on 1 August 1857. She married Richard Villiers Surtees at Katikati on 12 June 1879. Emily died at Torbay in Auckland at the age of 99, on 2 May 1957. 
  2. Stewart, Mervyn Archdale (1859-1951) Born at Martray House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 3 January 1859. In 1881 he married his cousin Phoebe Louisa Hornridge Gledstanes and they lived at Katikati. Later they retired to Edgecumbe Road in Tauranga. Both are buried in the Tauranga Anglican Cemetery. 
  3. Stewart, George Vesey (Jnr) (1861-1892) Born at Lisbeg House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 7 March 1861. He married Cecilia Isabella Anderson at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Katikati on 5 March 1890. George drowned off the Katikati Heads on 23 July 1892 leaving a pregnant wife and two children behind.
  4. Stewart, John Rowley Miller (1862-1945) Born at Lisbeg House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 25 November 1862. He married Ellen Louisa Furness in 1886. Whilst married to Ellen, he underwent a long term relationship with Ellen Hardy from which there were three children. He married Louisa Travis in 1913.
  5. Stewart, Frances Jane Montgomery (née Stewart) (1864-1947) Born at Lisbeg House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 28 March 1864. She married Michael Patrick Stewart at Auckland in 1886. Frances died in Remuera on 10 February 1947.
  6. Dumbleton, Mary Phoebe (née Stewart) (1865-1962) Born at Lisbeg House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 22 November 1865. Mary married Arthur Roderick Dumbleton in 1885. She died at Lower Hutt on 26 July 1962 at the age of 96 and was buried in Taita Cemetery.
  7. Stewart, Hugh Alexander Montgomery Moore (1867-1954) Born at Lisbeg House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 3 November 1867. Hugh married three times; Susan Iven Stewart (Clark) (m. 1895);  Jane Johnstone (Ferguson) (m. 1928) and Edith Stewart (Cantwell) (m. 1932). He died at Mount Roskill in Auckland on 21 November 1854 and was buried in Waikumete Cemetery.
  8. Stewart, Andrew Charles Henry Arbuthnot (1870-1961) Born at Lisbeg House at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 3 September 1870. Andrew married twice; Sarah Agnes Stewart (Wright) (m. 1934) and Blanche Camilla D’Oultoorn Pickering (Shaw) (m. 1945). He died in Auckland on 3 December 1961 and was buried in Katikati Cemetery.
  9. Stewart, William Nassau Stewart (1873-1954) Born at Ballygawley in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 14 December 1873. He married May Eveline Wright in Auckland on 31 July 1920. William died in Auckland in 1954 and was buried in Waikumete Cemetery.

Just a year after their arrival in New Zealand, George applied to divorce Margaret, charging her with adultery with his nephew, Cecil Ambrose Frederick Hornidge Gledstanes (1858-1904). The case was reported in the Auckland Star on 14 November 1876:

Divorce Case. G. V. STEWART V. STEWART AND GLEDSTANES. For some months back it has been rumoured that a notable divorce case was likely soon to come into Court, affecting certain of the principal settlers at the special settlement of Katikati, near Tauranga. Up to the present time we have carefully refrained from publishing any of the reports we heard, and it is only now when we hear that it is arranged for the suit to be heard at the Civil Sessions in January next, that we are led to mention it in our columns.

The petitioner in the case, which we may say presents most extraordinary features, is Mr George Vesey Stewart, the pioneer of the Katikati settlement, who sues for a divorce from his lawful wife, Margaret Torrens Stewart, on the ground of her adultery with Mr Cecil Gledstanes, of Katikati, a youth about 19 years old, who is one of Mr Stewart’s cadets, and has been residing in his house. The following is the main substance of the petition:

22nd August, 1876. The Petition of George Vesey Stewart, of Katikati, in the Province of Auckland, Settler, Sheweth—”1. That your petitioner was on the 17th day of April, 1856, lawfully married to Margaret Torrens Stewart, then Margaret Torrens Miller, a spinster, at the Church of St. John Moneymore, in the County of Derry, Ireland. 2. That after the said marriage, your petitioner lived and co-habited with his said wife at Lisbeg House in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, and at other places and latterly from about the month to September 1875, until the month of July 1876, with her at Katikati, in the said province. 3. That your petitioner and his said wife have had issue of their said marriage, to wit, nine children (the names follow). 4. That on the tenth day of July, 1876, and divers times between the 10th and 15th days of July, 1876, the said Margaret Torrens Stewart committed adultery with Cecil Gledstanes, of Katikati, settler at Katikati, aforesaid. Your petitioner therefore humbly prays: 1. That your Honor will be pleased to decree that the said marriage of your petitioner with the said Margaret Torrens Stewart shall be dissolved. 2. And that your petitioner may have such further and other relief in the premises as to your Honor may seem met. G. Vesey Stewart.”

It will be seen from this that the rumour that the co-respondent was a young man named Wilson, and that he went home on the ship ‘Carnatic’ is totally unfounded. The crime of which Mrs Stewart is accused is intensified by the fact of Mr Gledstanes being her own nephew. The respondent’s reply to the petition is a complete denial of the charge. We are informed on good authority that some of the allegations are so singular, that the case is bound to provoke great public interest. The suit is yet very young; indeed the issues for the jury are not quite settled, so that we are able to say very little about them. The citations were served on the respondent and co-respondent, at Katikati, on the 25th August last, and the answer was delivered by the respondent on the 27th September. As soon as Judge Gillies returns from Wellington the issues will be definitely shaped, and the case will be ripe for a jury. Messrs Hesketh and Richmond are the solicitors for the petitioner, and Messrs J. B. Russell and A. Devore for the respondent. (Auckland Star, 14 November 1876, p. 2)

However, it appears that the divorce was never finalised and the couple separated. Margaret moved to Auckland where she lived with Frederick Edward Dunston Paul (c. 1855-1911) [also known as Frederick Edward Dunstan Edwardes] and worked as a Ladies Nurse. Frederick had arrived in New Zealand aboard the Glenora in January 1877. Other names that Margaret used whilst in Auckland include: Margaret Torrens Edwardes; Mabel Florence Edwardes and Mabel Florence Paul.The couple appear to have had one child together and adopted or had custody of several others. 

Possible children of Margaret and Frederick Paul

  1. Stewart, Elsie Maria Sybil Frances (1884-1885) Born on 16 October 1884 to Frederick Edward Paul and Mabel Florence Stewart. Baptised at St Francis in Auckland on 11 December 1884. Noted illegitimate under baptism record’s comments. Sybil Paul died at Pollen Street, Surrey Hills, on 16 March 1885.
  2. Edwardes, Robert Henry Stanley (né Paul) (1885-1938?) Born in Surrey Hills, Newton on 22 March 1885 (reg. 1885/4644) to Frederick Edward Dunstan Paul and Mabel Florence Paul (formerly Miller). Robert married Catherine Clark in 1900 (reg. 1900/1738). They had a child named Robert William Paul in 1905 (reg. 1905/1976) and another one named Evelyn Roma Paul in 1912 (reg. 1912/5645). There is a death for a Robert Henry Paul, aged 60, in 1938 (reg. 1938/20232), but his age is not quite right.
  3. Edwards, Frederick Edward Patrick (?-?) (adopted March 1897).
  4. McClure Sybil Frances May (née Neilson) (c. 1878-1965) [adopted from a Wellington convent by Frederick in c. 1882]. Apparently Sybil was the illegitimate daughter of a discharged policeman. She appears to have married her adoptive father, Frederick, on 5 May 1902. She later married John McClure in 1916 (reg. 1916/7540).
  5. Wills, George Allan Wills (1898-1900) Born at Auckland on 21 June 1898. Adopted by Frederick Edward Dunston Edwardes and Margaret Torrens Edwardes. He died on 9 October 1900.
  6. Edwards, Daphne Edwards (1901-1991) (adopted?) Born on 28 March 1901. She died on 6 December 1991 at the age of 90.

It appears that Frederick left Margaret, possibly running off with his adopted daughter, as on 5 May 1902 (reg. 1902/1947) Frederick married Sybil Frances May Neilson, at St Peter’s Church in Wellington.

Margaret ran a boarding house situated at 34 Ponsonby Road in Auckland. She died at Grey Lynn in Auckland at the age of 81, on 28 July 1914.

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