Letter from Pat Nidd to Judith Knowles

"74A McAlpine Avenue
Wellington


22 August 1994


Dear Judith


I am Pat Nidd, Philippa Myer's grandfather and you are a cousin I did not know of and I am a cousin you did not know of.  I answer to the christian name Pat but my names are William Thomas and known also as Bill - it has caused a lot of confusion over the years.  Anyhow greetings and welcome.


It has been only the past few months that Philippa and I have been seriously trying to trace the comings and goings of my grandparents - grandfather and grandmother David and Janet Latto.  We have succeeded very well.


I knew practically nothing of them.  My mother told me little.  I suspect you are the same way although your mother may have revealed some knowledge of them to you.  it is possible my mother did not know much or if she did she was reluctant to divulge it.


Therefore I presume you know little of the history of our grandparents but should you have some knowledge that I do not have it would be grateful to hear from you about it. 


I can go to some length to give you a full picture of all I know and details of your cousins, which I will do, but in the meantime I will put you in the picture with this letter giving you an outline - more to follow.


The Latto's were Scottish coming from Fife, Scotland.  We have been able to trace them back to 1750.  I have prepared a family tree a copy of which I have attached.  Our great grandparents were James and Mary who of course were David's mother and father which you can trace in the tree. They came to  Christchurch in 1863.  David married Janet Hislop in 1881 at Kaiapoi, just north of Christchurch.  Have not traced how Janet arrived - Hislop family tree also attached.  The family of David and Janet was James, Jennie and Mary, my mother - it is from here things went off the rails unfortunately.  


Work was getting hard to get in New Zealand and David went to Australia in 1887 to see how things were there.  He was away for some time leaving the family in Christchurch.


Now, what I write about it what I was told in Christchurch in 1988 by my cousins (and yours).  The story goes that David returned and found Janet pregnant and he could not have been the father.  The child was christened Hannah Adelaide Todd Latto by Janet - we have her birth certificate (copy).  She therefore was a half sister to my mother, Jennie and James.  Hannah Adelaide was always known to us as Auntie Addie.  She and my mother were always very close to one another.


Addie married a Thomas Gill in Wellington and lived here all her life.  I will add here that I was born in Wellington and we went to Christchurch about 1916 - all our family born in Christchurch where they have always lived.   I married in Wellington 1940 shortly before I went to the war and settled in Wellington on my return.  I have always been very close to my Gill cousins in Wellington. 


I do not know whether the Gills ever knew that their mother and mine were half sisters but our cousins in Christchurch say they did know.  This does not worry me one bit and I am never going to mention to the two surviving girls.  So be it.  


Janet apparently left her family after Addie was born and David deserted them and ... is buried in the Karori Cemetery - I found the grave in the Lawn Cemetery last week and have taken a photo.


It seems that my mother and Auntie Addie - very close together - came to Wellington about 1905.  Now Grandma Janet was also in Wellington at this time - did she bring the girls up with her or did they come of their own accord - I wonder.  


Mum and Addie were Presbyterian as Scots, became Anglican through foster parents I think and eventually became Roman Catholics.  I have obtained the certifications of coming into the Catholic Church in Newtown, Wellington.  The year was 1908.


Auntie Addie married Thomas Gill in Wellington in 1910 and my mother married William Nidd in Wellington in 1912.  Their mother Janet was living in Wellington in those years - one would think she knew of her daughters' weddings - perhaps they did not know of each others' existence - we were never told. 


I have a suspicion that my mother may have come to Wellington to her mother's funeral in 1922 and that Auntie Addie may have visited your mother in Hataitai in 1924 - 25.  I will expand on this in my enlarged essay to you.


You have quite a few cousins still living in New Zealand.  From the family tree you will see James Latto - Uncle Jim.  He had a family of four - Violet, David, Eric and Alex.  David is dead and the others live in Christchurch.


Jennie had a boy and a girl George and Isabel.  Jennie had another daughter who died still born and Jennie died shortly after the birth.  George is dead as of 1985 and Isabel lives in Christchurch.


In our family there were three boys and four girls - I am the eldest, born in Wellington in 1914. Then there were Marie, now deceased, Monica still living, Edward Michael (Mickey)...


.........page missing.............


...recognise something in them.  I have a photo of myself, Frank, Mick and Monica taken at Angela's funeral three years ago - I will send you a copy.  


Well Judith, I am most delighted that you made yourself known to Philippa and thus establishing that I had another cousin.


Isabel in Christchurch I did not know was my cousin until 1985 although we both attended the Christchurch Technical College together - I will tell you about it in my enlarged essay.


Well I hope I have managed to put you in the picture in respect of your existing cousins and will start to put together an enlarged writing.


I hope it will not be too long when we will be able to meet each other. 


Our kindest regards and love, 


Pat N." 


Judith Knowles was the child of Constance Amy Latto and her husband Norman Wilkinson, born 1896 in Wellington, and purported to be the child of  Janet and David Latto.  David had long since left for Australia and had a new family there and could not have possibly been the father of this child.


The rumours which circulated within the cousins about Addie not being David's daughter, appear to have been a misunderstanding - as until the 1990s it wasn't clear that Addie wasn't Janet's youngest daughter, but that there was another - Constance.  


Although I can't find a copy of any 'enlarged essay' Pat wrote to Judith, he does make mention in some of his notes of remembering a visit to Wellington he made as a child in 1922 - I believe that this is where he based his belief that his mother may have attended her mother, Janet Beckett's funeral in 1922.  
We found Judith and met her in Auckland in 1994/1995.  She was a lovely, friendly lady.  Having been brought up an only child, she was very excited to find she had cousins.  Unfortunately we lost touch with her.  

Mary Nidd nee Latto

My grandfather, William Thomas "Pat" Nidd was born on 17 February 1914.  He and I became close around the time of his 80th birthday and together started piecing together his family history.  He died aged 89 in November 2003 and is buried at Makara Cemetery in the Returned Servicemen's area.


I knew that he had been writing down some of his memories of his family, and after his death I tried, discreetly, to find them at my grandparents'  house, but it was only after my grandmother, Kathleen Nidd, left the house to go to a rest home in February 2009, and I helped clearing the house out, that I found the piles of writing my Grandad had left.  


I want to ensure that even if the originals get lost, misplaced or destroyed, that there is a record of what he wrote, so I will be publishing pieces as I can, on here.  


The first one I've got today is a piece Pat wrote on his mother, Mary Nidd.  


Mary Nidd born Latto
Daughter of David and Janet


To write anything about mother is such that it must be pretty sketchy because little is known of her early life from babyhood to going to Wellington about 1905.


Her father David Latto arrived in NZ with his parents James and Mary Latto (see genealogical table - family tree - marked 1.) in a ship the SS Sebastapool.


Her mother was Janet Heslop - it is not known to us when or how she arrived in NZ.  Possibly she came from Australia about the time of the Lattos.


They were married at Kaiapoi on 16 December 1881.


Janet had three children by David - James born 1883, Jeannie born 1884 and Mary born 23 May 1886.


The children were deserted by their father.  Also deserted was a baby Adelaide by Janet, but David was not the father.*


James and Jeannie were looked after by James and Mary Latto being David's parents and also by David's brother George.  Jeannie was also looked after by people Northcott who were relations of the Lattos.  Have seen a photo of them with Jeannie.


Mary and Adelaide were brought up by foster parents in Ward Street, Addington.   Nothing is known of them as little children and up to the time when they went to Wellington.  Nothing is known of the school or work.  Mother never told us - it is possible she could not remember but could hardly have forgotten, we have never solved this.  Mother told me several times that they lived in Ward Street.


Mother and Adelaide went to Wellington about 1905 - they were very close.  Why they went to Wellington is not known.  Perhaps they knew their mother was in Wellington then.


Adelaide worked in a private hotel where she met a Tom Gill to whom she eventually married.  I have heard that mother met Jim Gill, Walter's brother at the same time and that she was engaged to him in Christchurch - but nothing ever came of it.


Mother worked in the Te Aro Hotel in Wellington as a licensed barmaid - they had to be licensed then. William Nidd became the licensee when she was working there and eventually married her.  I was born there.  


Father came to Christchurch in 1919 and had the Star Hotel in Addington and later the Royal Hotel and Southbridge later.


* There had long been family talk about the youngest child of Janet not being David's daughter.  For decades we weren't aware that there was another daughter, younger than Adelaide, who Janet gave birth to in Wellington.  This child Constance Amy Latto, was undoubtedly not David's daughter, as by then he was well and truly in Australia by the time of her birth (although Janet did list him as the father on Constance's birth certificate).  Based on dates and emails with Megan Prendergast, who is married to Adelaide's great grandson, it is fairly obvious that Adelaide was in fact David's daughter.


Photo of Mary Latto at her sister Adelaide's wedding to Tom Gill in 1910

Mary Nidd's obituary appeared most fully in the Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIX, Issue 1, 4 January 1938, Page 5:

OBITUARY

MRS W. M. NIDD.

The close of the old year brought sorrow to the home of Mr W. M. Nidd, the respected licensee of the Southbridge Hotel, and members of his family, Mrs Nidd passing away on Friday after a severe illness. Her cheery disposition, broad sympathies and kindly nature won for her the warm regard of all with whom she came into contact during the seven, years she had resided at Southbridge and Mr Nidd and the members of the family have the sincere sympathy of the community in their loss. 

Formerly Miss Mary Latto, of Wellington, her marriage to Mr Nidd took place about 25 years ago. After residing for a time in the capital city, Mr and Mrs Nidd remqved. to Christchurch, where Mr Nidd was in business for a long period. Seven years ago they settled at Southbridge. Of a family of nine children, seven survive. Although the claims of her home and family did not allow Mrs Nidd much time I for social and other activities, she always took a keen interest in district affairs and was a generous supporter of worthy causes and a sympathetic helper of those in need. 

A very large number of friends attended the funeral on S/unday. Service at St. Joseph's Church, Southbridge, was conducted by the Rev. Father Creed, parish priest, assisted by the Rev." Father O'Connor, of Addington, both of whom took part in the burial service at the Catholic Cemetery. Members of St. John's branch of the Hibernian Society, of which Mr Nidd is an active member, and visiting members of the order from Christchurch, formed a guard of honour at the church and also at the cemetery, and Bros. J. Bohan, E. R. V. Winter, W. J. Galvin, C. J. Dugan, T. Carroll and R. Twiss, of St. John's, acted as pall-bearers. 

Floral tributes were received from the following:—Southbridge Town: Board; Mr and Mrs Strutton; Southbridge Cricket Club; Mr and Mrs J. M. Coffey; Mr and Mrs Alf. Barrett; Mr and Mrs J, T. Sutton; Mr W. T. Mahar; Southbridge Rugby Football Club; Mr and Mrs Peter Watson; Mr and Mrs Arnold Fussell; management and staff, Quill, Morris (1936), Ltd.; Mrs Goulden, Shona and Jean; Mrs Klee, Tim and Les; Marie, Monica and Archie; Mr and Mrs A. Hannah and family; Mr and Mrs J. C. Wallace; Nance Hancock; Mr and Mrs T. G. Brown; Canterbury Licensed Victuallers' Association; the Bennett family; Mr and Mrs M. O'Brien; Mr and Mrs W. Hickman and family; Mr and Mrs Paterson and Colleen; Mr and Mrs W. R. Green and family; D. and R. Lochhead; Mr and Mrs J. Mac- Kenzie; Mr and Mrs C. Britliffe; Jim, Mary and family; Mr and Mrs E. Lilley and family; Mr and Mrs E. Gowland and family; Mr and Mrs G. Ridden and Pat; Naomi Galvin; Mr and Mrs W. V. Rowan; Mr Peter Gallagan; the Southbridge Labour Branch; management and staff N.Z. Breweries, Ltd.; the chairman and members, North Canterbury Provincial Council of the Licensed Trade.