During the Victorian era, intrepid female explorers defied
strict societal expectations of domesticity, travelling the globe for
adventure, scientific discovery, and personal freedom. Mary Kingsley explored
west African jungles and swamps, Isabella Bird the explorer and travel writer
rode 800 miles over the Rocky Mountains, while the artist Marianne North
ventured to all of the continents and her collection of botanical art is housed
at Kew Gardens in London. Another woman, this one Irish-born, Lucy Mansel
travelled to New Zealand prepared to break in the land and farm, accompanied by
six of her nephews.
As well as her sense of adventure, the family background may
also have led to a desire to leave England as her brother and later her sister did,
for their father Robert Mansel, who was the Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th
Inneskilling Dragoons, was the first of several illegitimate children fathered
by General Robert Manners and his common-law wife Mary Ann Goodchild. Mary was
the daughter of a coachman so not of the same class as her partner. Manners never
married and died aged 65 in 1823 in London but had lived at Bloxham Hall in
Lincolnshire.
Lucy Mansel
heard of George Vesey Stewart’s Katikati settlement in New Zealand from a
friend and decided to take a big step and emigrate. She was unmarried and, on
the Northumberland in 1884, brought with her six nephews: Charles,
Herbert, William and Harold Mansel, sons of her brother Robert, and Clement and
Robert Dowell, sons of her sister Mary Dowell [1]. She had
been caring for Herbert since he was five years old. On arrival in New Zealand,
she decided against settling in Katikati with the other Stewart people and
instead bought an established farm on the outskirts of Tauranga. It was Yatton,
the 320-acre property formerly owned by John Chadwick [2].
Miss Mansel, as she was known in those more formal days, extended the existing house at Yatton to one with eight bedrooms and also built a large barn that was used for balls and other social occasions. The domestic buildings were built on a high point overlooking the estuary. She was a very strong supporter of the Anglican Church, helping to fund-raise for the new church of St George’s at Gate Pa, and was the only woman on the building committee. She donated the font for the new church. Lucy made the Methodist Sunday School children welcome each year for their annual picnic at her farm after their short voyage up the estuary from Tauranga to the landing at Yatton. The barn provided shelter if there was poor weather.
Lucy Mansel
was also a committee member of a group of Tauranga women who organised the gift
of a photograph album for Mary, Duchess of Cornwall, later George V’s Queen, on
the occasion of the Royal Visit in 1905.
It was an album of Tauranga and district photographs by Tauranga’s
leading photographer Mary Humphries.
As well as
having her nephews working on the farm, she also accommodated farm cadets from
England as G.V. Stewart and some of his Katikati settlers did. She never
married and left the farm to her nephew Herbert Benbow Mansel, the
five-year-old whom she had brought up. It was this legacy to Herbert that
prompted Lucy’s niece, Mary Constance Dowell, to contest the will that Lucy had
signed in 1910. Her claims of her aunt’s
fading mental facilities and encroaching blindness were disputed by George
Maltby, lawyer; Reverend Eric Rice, vicar; Dr Budenell her doctor; Walter
Baigent, accountant; and nephew Herbert Mansel.
In light of the information from these men Mary Constance withdrew her
objection to the granting of probate.
It is from
Herbert’s submission that the family stories are revealed. Robert Mansel and
his wife, parents of Herbert and his brothers, retired from the Royal Navy
where his rank was Commander, to farm in Africa where he died in 1872. When he
married in Tauranga, Herbert built another house on Yatton for his future
family, adjacent to Lucy’s. His parents had taken four of his siblings to
Africa. Herbert was 17 when he arrived in Tauranga and totally dependent on his
aunt. During her lifetime Lucy gave Herbert part of Yatton in trust for his
children and helped him financially, including help with the education of his
children. Lucy also told him she would leave him the remainder of the Yatton
estate. By 1914 she had sold any remaining property in England and brought the
money to New Zealand. Lucy’s eyesight did get worse but she lived until 1916.
She died in Auckland and is buried in Tauranga’s Anglican cemetery [3].
Lucy’s
sister Mary Mansel married George Dare Dowell of the Royal Marines. He won the Victoria Cross during the Crimean
War. It was his sons who had travelled to Tauranga in 1884 with their Aunt Lucy.
Following Dowell’s retirement, the couple moved to New Zealand until his death
in August 1910. His wife died 6 weeks later.
Family military tradition emerged again when the First World War broke out and three sons of Robert Charles Mansel and his wife Beatrix enlisted. George Victor and Robert Charles Mansel returned home after the war but Herbert Pengelly Mansel died in Palestine from malaria. Although he is buried in the Jerusalem War Cemetery [4], his memorial can be found in St George’s Church, Gate Pa.
At right: AWNS-19160727-45-25; at left, photo by Janes Bruce Ringer, 3003-2914
References
[1] Rorke, Jinty, entry in Dictionary of NZ Biography 1993: Lucy
Mansel
[2] Bay of Plenty Times, 4 April 1941: see Papers Past,
National Library. Viewed 16/05/2026.
[3] Will of Lucy Mansel, Archives NZ. Auckland Probates
IE48341583. Viewed 17/05/2026.
[4] Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database.
