Ebenezer Goddard Norris (1830-1890)

Ebenezer Goddard Norris
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries

Trawling through the Papers Past entries that highlight E.G. Norris, I initially got the impression that he was the owner of many properties here in Tauranga. However it also records that he was the property agent for the Church Missionary Society and it is possible that the “7 room cottage for rent” and the “10 acres of grass” and others, may have in fact belonged to the Society.

Ebenezer needed plenty of initiative from a young age as both his parents had passed on by his 21st birthday and he had eight younger siblings to look out for. He and three brothers and five sisters arrived in Kerikeri in 1851, where he took the lease of the Stone Store. After about a decade the brothers had all gone to sea, the girls were all married or independent, and Ebenezer married Charlotte Kemp, the ‘girl next door.’

The Strand from the Town Wharf, 1870-1874
“High Trees” at back left, Mission Institute at back right, Te Papa Store (NZI agency) to right of wharf
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 16-011

Sadly by 1865 he was widowed with 2 year-old Ada and he made the move to Tauranga and set up a small store in Wharf Street. He obviously still had interests in Auckland as three years later he married Amelia Campbell; he was by then 38 and she, 22. Their first home in Tauranga was known as ‘High Trees’ (near the present Courthouse) and from there Amelia released the first sparrows into the NZ countryside.

Colin was born in 1871, followed by Amy a couple of years later. Business appears to have been good as they commissioned their new home to be built a little further from town. Barbreck House was commodious and said to be the copy of an English vicarage. People spoke of it being “out in the country” but its site was on the corner of Second Ave / Devonport Road and the grounds extended as far as Cameron Road.

Barbreck House, built in 1874, undated
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 02-558

Gregory, born in 1875, was possibly was the first babe to be christened in the new Holy Trinity Church nearby. Canon Charles Jordan became a friend and part of the family in later years as Norrises and Jordans intermarried. By 1881 Mrs Norris was advertising in the BOP Times for a general servant and that year Ruby was born, followed by Connie in ’84.

Meanwhile the patriarch was fully occupied running his store, being the agent for CMS and also the NZ Insurance Company. In addition he had been gazetted Captain of the Volunteer Rifles, was on the first railway committee, the Town Board, stood for Mayor in 1882 (but was defeated by George Vesey Stewart) and possibly began the first Masonic Lodge here.

Amelia, her five children and others on the steps of Rawhiti, 1923
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 04-044

The Norris family had added Frederick, a motherless nephew, into their brood at some point, and when the lad’s father William was lost at sea near Mercury Bay in 1890, the strain of that, in addition to the financial depression of the 80s, was thought to be all too much for Ebenezer, he took ill and died within a couple of days.

To be continued

Sources
Papers Past  1872-1890
The Life and Times of Capt Ebenezer Norris by A.A. (Gypsy) McKenzie (Pae Koroki)