Our first Secretary - Thomas Robert WALTON

 

7 SEPTEMBER 1846 • County Cork, Ireland - 11 JULY 1916 • Nelson, New Zealand

Our first Secretary - Thomas Robert WALTON was initiated into Freemasonry at the first Initiation meeting of the United Manawatu Lodge in 1877. 

He married Lucy Kibblewhite in Masterton 4 September 1869.   He is shown as a Schoolmaster.  Lucy's father was a very early settler, arriving in 1842.  He emigrated from England on the ship Clifton arriving in Port Nicholson.   He was also known as a Methodist preacher.





Thomas was a general store keeper in partnership with a Mr James KING. Their premises were situated in the Square about where Millar & Georgi is situated today. They called it Palmerston MarT (Big T), from about 1877 to the early 1880’s. 

He was a member of Town Board formed in 1876, then a member of the first Borough Council in 1877-9, polling 5th highest in the elections, and was elected a second time 1886-7. 

In 1879 he appears among the first 361 PN ratepayers - see Birth of Palmerston North / I R Matheson 1971.

Bro. Walton is also recorded as a promoter of A & P Association in 1886-87.

He and Lucy appear to have had 9 children, Lucy dying on 14 Nov 1884 aged only 33, perhaps shortly after giving birth.   She is buried in the Terrace End Cemetery.

He still appears in the electoral roll in Palmerston North in 1890 as a Settler. 

He died in Nelson on 11 July 1916 and is buried at the Wakapuaka Cemetery.   He may have worked there as an accountant.


His daughter's (Margaret Lucy who died in 10 July 1883) gravestone can be found in the Terrace End Cemetery.   His wife's does not seem to have survived.

 





Sources: 

  • The MANAWATU KILWINNING LODGE No. 47.  'The EVOLUTION and the MEMORIES.  125th Jubilee 1883 - 2008' by V.W.Bro. John Livingstone, P.G.Lec., Chaplain and Bro. David Fountain, M.M.
  • https://www.geni.com/people/Thomas-Robert-Walton/6000000083712857144
  • https://www.ajlassociates.biz/familychart.php?personID=I14255&tree=frost
  • https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Walton-11221#Biography
  • https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/103217318/person/262661051713/facts
  • https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/177686096/thomas_robert-walton

  • https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WI18690911.2.11

  • https://manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz/item/4a7fd65b-6dd1-47a8-989f-4ea81f624ab2#tab-item-description

  • Palmerston North Settlers' Collection - Palmerston North Branch NZ Society of Genealogists




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