Return to Randolph Group Photo
Original information:
This is Elizabeth Morris (nee Stokes). She was 17 when her mother died in childbirth, and to her fell the task of caring for her nine younger siblings, including the newborn twins, who both survived. She married William Morris in 1858. They were among the original settlers at Waikuku. She gave birth to 11 children and lived to 95.
Readers’ response:
Elizabeth married William Morris and they built their first house in Waikuku of sod that she helped mix while he worked on the roads. The house was added to in wood and is still standing, opposite the Waikuku church.
The farm was of 140 acres and named Eaton Dale for William’s home village of Eaton in Leicestershire, 2km from the Stokes’ village of Branston.
Elizabeth bore 11 children, three dying in childhood, the rest leaving descendants around Waikuku and in the central North Island. 1
Footnotes:
1. Pamela Criglington, unpublished family history
Elizabeth died in 1930 at the age of 95, her Grandson, Philip Thirlwall Morriss is still alive and is 86 yrs old. He still can remember his Granny quite well as she lived with them for the last few years of her life. He still lives in the house that her Son, Frederick Samuel Morriss built in the early 1900’s.