Biography

Elizabeth Wedlake née Beswetherick (c.1844-1923)

Elizabeth Beswetherick was born in Cornwall in about 1844. She married Frederick (Fred) Wedlake at St Austell in 1860. Elizabeth and Fred came to New Zealand in the late 1860s for the gold rush, leaving their family behind in England. No record of their passage has been found, so it is possible they came via the gold fields of Australia.

The couple made their way to Lawrence in search of gold and began living in Blue Spur, a town above Gabriel’s Gully. In 1870 the Wedlakes had a stillborn daughter, then in 1873 had a child, Saupenias Ann, again at Blue Spur. However, she died an infant.

In 1874 the couple’s English born children, Frederick William (aged 14), John Alfred (12) and Charlotte (10) came out to New Zealand on the ship Asia, arriving in Otago on 26th April of that year. Fred’s brother Thomas (21) and Julia Wedlake (17) arrived on the same ship.

While the children attended Blue Spur School, Fred worked his claim at Gabriel’s Gully and later worked for the Richmond Hill Company as the Underground Manager in their mine.

Elizabeth and Fred were living in Lawrence in 1894 when their neighbour’s house was burnt down and Fred was called as a witness at the coroner’s enquiry on 27th March 1894. Some time later they moved to Dunedin. It seems possible that Fred may have gone to Dunedin ahead of Elizabeth, as an advertisement in the Tuapeka Times on 24th March 1897 indicated the sale of Mrs Wedlake’s effects.

By 1906 Elizabeth and Fred were living in Dunedin, at 264 Great King Street. Elizabeth died on 7th April 1923 and is buried here in the Northern Cemetery in the Wedlake family plot with her husband, sons, daughter and daughter-in-law.

(Details from the Tuapeka Times on the Papers Past website)