52 Ancestors - Week 9 - Will - Hester (Lovell) Stanton
This morning I walked through the living room of my 3x great grandmother, Hester. Well, if I'm honest, it may not have been her living room, it may just have been her garden. Around me the stall holders of the Motueka Sunday Market, held on Deck's Reserve, were selling everything from blueberries to second hand hoes. It wasn't until I found Hester's will and newspaper advertisements related to her estate, that I realised the connection. Hester passed away in Motueka in 1898 aged 85 and after her death, the property she and her husband Ben had cleared of forest and where they had run a store, was auctioned. It was bought by Dr. Deck, one of the witnesses to her will "signed" with a very shaky cross the previous year. In the 1950s, these three acres were gifted by Dr. Deck's daughters to the people of Motueka and are now the Deck's Reserve. Half of the area is a carpark during the week but a market on Sundays, and half is parkland where the local histo...