Nicholson, Maria
Production date
1859-1861
1850-1859
1860-1869
Description
Maria Nicholson came to New Zealand in 1859 on the ship Eclipse as governess to the family of the Reverend Henry Handley Brown, a clergyman at Omata near New Plymouth. In 1860 she was evacuated to Nelson, and shortly afterwards dismissed from the Brown family's service. Unable to pay her fare back to England, she reluctantly worked as governess to Lulu Eyes, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the province. Maria stayed with the Eyes family at Wairau for a year before returning to England in February 1862.
In these copies of her letters addressed to her sister Elizabeth Hall she describes the voyage out on the Eclipse, her first impressions of New Plymouth and its inhabitants and her stay in Nelson. Her comments on colonial society are detailed and perceptive.
Object detail
1850-1859
1860-1869
Part 1
Typescript. Carbon copy.
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