Biography

Charlotte Mary Pearce (1861 – 1925)

Charlotte was born in 1861 in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her mother was Mary Ann Freeman and her father James Pearce, a butcher. This family had many secrets. The father was born James John Charles Harris in 1818, at Gravesend, Kent, England, son of James Harris and Honour(?). Mary Ann Freeman, his wife, was born in 1829, daughter of James Freeman and Mary(?) in Middlesex, England. Both were transported as prisoners to Tasmania, James on the Kennaway and Mary on the Eliza. They married on the 29th May 1853 at Holy Trinity Church in Launceston, Tasmania. Their first three children, James Langley Walter (1854), William John (1856), and Charles Julius (1858) were born in Tasmania. In the latter part of 1860, the Harris family lived at 121 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, Tasmania, next door to the Gollar family. In 1861 the Harris family boarded the Wanderer and came to Dunedin, changing their name to Pearce at some time during the voyage. Charlotte was born on the 6th May 1861 in Dunedin.

William and Charlotte’s only son, William Ernest, is buried with his parents in plot 16, class 1, block 172, in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin, thus ending the Gollar name in New Zealand. They also had a daughter, Ethel.

Known as “Aunt Lottie”, Charlotte lived in Riversdale following the death of William. James Pearce, Charlotte’s father, was godfather to Margaret Gollar.

Note: The death date on the tombstone of William Ernest Gollar is incorrect, as he died in 1885. Daughter Ethel Gollar and her husband Walter Galland are also buried in this plot, but there is no inscription indicating this on the headstone. The grave, formerly in disrepair, is now a tidy grassed plot, and the gravestone, which had fallen, has been re-erected.

Others buried here: Charlotte’s husband William, her children William Ernest and Ethel, and her son-in-law Walter Galland.