Researching the death of Joseph Milverton and family

Recently a university assignment had me researching the records family leave after they die. I had in the past collected death certificates and probate records not really knowing what to use them for. The aim of the assignment was to look at what the person left in their probate namely their will and how the inheritance was divided between family members. Basing the assignment on my great, great, grand uncle Joseph Milverton of Palmerston North, New Zealand did prove to be an interesting exercise. I was not sure about the records that were available including Journal articles about inheritance in New Zealand. I soon found searching for articles online to be quite tough especially when searching for information around the early twentieth century. It wasn’t actually the journal articles search website that I perform through the university library, but through Google where most of the articles turned up including two thesis’ one written around the 1980s.

I found the whole assignment experience to be really tough as I was searching for information and one thing I did have access to was Paperspast in New Zealand where I could find obituaries and even death duties, which provide you with the estate value. From there you can work out what percentage you would have to pay. During that time I had wondered how much these properties would be worth in today’s money and I found a program that did just that. While searching for more information on Joseph Milverton’s death in 1912, I went looking for the property information. I assumed the Testamentary Registers were what I was looking for. They are meant to provide you with information on real and personal estate unless I misread the information. A week before the assignment was due I received the Register microfilm at my local family history group, but problem was the records I was after did not appear unless Palmerston North did not give the government all the records even though there were people from the same town recorded. I had another person to search for and they did not have a record either even when they died without a will. The other person was actually Maud Milverton, Joseph’s daughter who passed away in 1909.

Tracing Joseph and his children was interesting as I knew some of the story already. Joseph was born in Beaminster, Dorset around 1831 and was a painter, which appeared in the 1851 and 1861census’. Between two census periods of 1851 and 1861, he had moved to London, where he married Mary Anne Prior in 1857 from the county of Norfolk. In 1873, Joseph and his wife Mary Anne left London with their three surviving children, William, Edward and Elizabeth Brett on board the vessel, ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. The ship arrived in Wellington after a three month journey from London to Wellington. Joseph was one of the first rate payers in Palmerston North and he did have a business with either one of or both his sons called ‘Milverton and Son’. The business sold farm produce from grains to equipment and appeared in various newspapers advertising the wares. Both Joseph and his sons were contractors who worked on metalling (graveling) several local roads and disputed their actions with the local council on several occasions including being heard at the Supreme Court. Mary Anne died in 1891 and was buried in Terrace End Cemetery. Around 1895 Joseph did retire due to failing eyesight. In his daughter’s probate amongst the letters of administration he couldn’t help sort out her estate as he was blind so his son William took charge instead. 

When Joseph died in 1912, his probate was written to say his sons would get everything between them and his daughter Elizabeth would get 300 pounds legacy, which could not be touched until seven years after his death. If Elizabeth died during that time then her children would get the money. I did know Joseph owned a house, but wondered about several plots of land that were in Edward and William’s names as I had seen council rates where Joseph had paid. The two sons and Joseph were at the same address within the Electoral roll for 1911 and the brothers were still living there several years later. The mutual will between the brothers meant when one of them died the other would receive everything that was owned by the other brother. I had found from reading that mutual wills were something usually done between husband and wife. The writing of a completely new will would mean the mutual will would have been voided. The mutual will had been written in November of 1911, when Joseph was still alive. I am unsure if Joseph was behind the writing of this will or not. The first brother to die was Edward in 1925, so William the survivor would have received everything. Both brothers in 1925 were still bachelors with Edward aged 66.

William would later go on to marry twice, once in 1929 to Elise Renton and again in 1934 to Jane Pascoe, a year after Elsie had passed away. William’s story is also an interesting one as he was pretty active within the Palmerston North community. I did read about several stories including on during World War One where William corresponded with the New Zealand Minister of defence during 1917 about tanks known as Milvertanks that were basically traction engines with armour. No idea if the correspondence would still exist in archives or not. In 1925 in the same month that Edward died, William donated a block of land to Palmerston North council for children to play in.   The park would later be known as Milverton park this is located on the corner of Victoria and Ferguson streets in Palmerston North. The plot of land was called section 954 at the size of 4 acres. He offered the donation in 1925 and after his requirements were made said he would hand over the deeds in 1926. One of the requirements said for the land to be drained. By the time William Milverton died in 1950, he was been well known in Palmerston North where he was once an elected councillor in the local council between 1927 and 1929. William had spent around twenty years trying to get votes to become a councillor and was not successful until 1927. He did have issues with several of the other councillors to the point where he was caught tampering with sewerage pipes being laid in Palmerston North and this issue was bought up at a council meeting. William could have stayed in council longer than the period of time in 1929, but resigned stating in his resignation letter he would not sit with the current council.

In earlier years there might have been an explanation for both the donation of the land and why he requested that it be drained of water. Within Paperspast there had been various reports where William had disputed the land values through land assessments as the land was water logged, several disputes with council about inadequate drainage and these could have led to him donating the four acres of land so it would not cost him. William died in 1950 and there were no children, but within his will there were references to donate money to several local children’s charities through his estate. He did make sure his wife was cared for by paying her 200 pounds per year and allowed to live in the house in Main Street, Palmerston North. The will went on for 8 pages including requirements for having cattle on farmland and that some belongings were to be donated to the museum when one was built. When the will had been written William was also blind like his father before him. His wife Jane had only survived for another year when she died in 1951.

The biggest Surprise was reading Elizabeth Dudson’s probate as she had married James Dudson and was the sister of Edward and William. She was the last sibling to pass away in 1957 in Tauranga and what was written in her will did give me something to think about. Her husband had been a flax miller, although in Maud Milverton’s probate during 1909, he had been stated as being a farmer for his occupation. James had died well before Elizabeth in 1947. He did not leave a will so Elizabeth being his wife would have received everything.  Elizabeth mentions her surviving daughter as Sister Sylvia instead of by her name Eileen Dudson. Money was to go to Sister Sylvia, Abbotsford Children’s House in Waipawa and the Roman Catholic Church’s orphanages in New Zealand. I wouldn’t know if Sister Sylvia / Eileen would have had children or if the family line had ended with her. It does raise some questions especially in regards to why she joined the church and what records are available.

I did find it interesting to research a family line that I had collected some records about, but had not gone through them. There are still plenty of records that I had not done any research on. Before my assignment, I did not know you could collect a bit of information through the death of an ancestor. The reason I traced a branch instead of a direct line was that I had limited information on them even though I had some records of my great, great grandparents who were living in Palmerston North around the time of Joseph’s family. I had not actually done any research into the main branches of the Milvertons. One of then Frederick from the United States died in Washington DC, but I cant access his probate records unless I apply in person. Others I had not even traced very far and the lecturer did mention expense in doing the exercise so this would be left for later. I will leave a list of some sources that I used. Throughout the time period not one parliamentary Act would completely cover the family as they were always changing to include something including death duties or the Family Protection Act of 1900 as an example where family would be taken care of instead of being left destitute.

Sources / Bibliography

‘Early New Zealand Statutes’, Death Duties Act 1908, http://www.enzs.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1908/1908C038.pdf, accessed 31 August 2015.

‘Death of Mr Joseph Milverton’, Manawatu Daily Times’, 9 March 1912, p. 5.

‘Death dues’, Feilding Star, 6 June 1913, p. 4, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=FS19130606.2.55, accessed 31 August 2015.

‘Inflation calculator’, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary_policy/inflation_calculator/, accessed 8 September 2015.

‘New Zealand Probate Records’ Church of the Latter-Day Saints, 2014, https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/New_Zealand_Probate_Records, accessed, 7 September 2015.

‘Death Duty Registers’, Auckland Regional office fact sheet 9, 2009, http://archives.govt.nz/death-duty-registers, accessed 1 September 2015.

Christie, James ‘Testator’s Family maintenance in New Zealand’, Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, vol. 18, 1918, pp. 216 – 231.

Galt, Margaret Nell ‘Wealth and income in New Zealand c. 1870 – c. 1939’, unpublished doctorate thesis in Philosophy in Economic History, University of Wellington, 1985, pp. 1 – 295.

Kennedy, Stacey ‘Dead wrong: A critique of the death provisions of the property (Relationships) Act 1976, and the case for change’, Unpublished B.A. (Hons) thesis for Law, University of Otago, 2014, pp. 1 – 65.

Littlewood, Michael ‘The history of death duties and gift duty in New Zealand’, New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy, vol. 18, 2012, pp. 66 – 103.

Matheson, I. R. ’Birth of Palmerston North, centenary supplement’, Evening Standard, 13 March, 1971, p.22.

Nield, Sarah ‘If you look after me, I will leave you my estate: The enforcement of testamentary promises in England and New Zealand’, Legal Studies, vol. 85, 2000, pp. 1 – 20.