Jennet (Janet) Corrigall - my generation’s great grandaunt

Janet Johnstone (Jennet Margaret) Corrigall was born on the 3rd of December 1885, in Omakau (Registration number 1886/798). She was the third child of Jean and James Corrigall and the second eldest daughter. Like the other Corrigall children, she attended Blacks school, and no doubt helped her family with household and farm chores.

Little is known of her childhood, however Miss J. Corrigall is mentioned in the ‘Cromwell Argus’ as taking part in a recitation of ‘Santa Claus Frolic’ at Blacks School Concert and Social. Janet would have been 8 years old at the time of this occasion on Friday the 24th of August, 1894.

Janet was 16 years old in 1902 when her mother Jean and a Miss Corrigall were mentioned as a guests at a Miss Paul and Mr White’s wedding. Jean presented the newly weds with a lamp and Miss Corrigall gave them a pair of picture frames. This Miss Corrigall is likely to have been Janet rather than her older sister Bess, as at this time Bess would have either been pregnant or have just had her son, Alex.

As has been noted elsewhere, newspapers of the time would often report on various social events and it would be usual practise to list what the women were wearing. In 1905 a Miss Corrigall, probably Janet who would have been 19 by now, wore a white muslin blouse and a dark skirt to the anniversary ball of the Loyal United Brothers Lodge M.U.I.O.O.F. held in Victoria Hall, Cambrians on the 15th of September. The following year in 1906 a Miss Corrigall acted in the charades at a social in Omakau on the 30th of August. This event included singing, lantern slides, a geographical competition, games and charades. Probably this was Janet who was 20 at this time.

I wonder if it was at one of these social occasions that Janet met William Irwin Wallace, a much older divorced man from Hillend, near Balclutha? I also wonder what Janet’s parents thought, with their eldest daughter having a child out of wedlock and their second eldest engaged to an older divorced man. Of course we won’t ever know all the circumstances and no doubt Jean and James recalled the fact that they married at 8 months pregnant, with daughter Bess.

William had been born on the 9th of February, 1871, in Tullyskeherny, Cloonclare, County Leitrim, Ireland. He was the eldest son of the Robert and Margaret Wallace, whom he came out to Sydney with on the ship ‘Garonne’. The family lived in New South Wales for 14 years before immigrating to New Zealand, where they settled at Pukekoma, Upper Hillend, near Balclutha. I have no knowledge of William’s first wife or the details of his divorce.

Janet and William Irwin Wallace were married on the 9th of January, 1907 at Ophir Presbyterian Church (Registration number 1907/1370). She was 21 years old and he was 36 at the time of the wedding. Janet and William’s wedding was reported in the Dunstan Times on the 28th of January 1907, p.5. In this article the bride was described as ‘charming in a dress of white silk’ and carrying a ‘bible bound in white velvet’. Her sister, Nell, the bridesmaid ‘wore a muslin dress trimmed with lace and insertion, and carried a shower bouquet’. After the ceremony the bridal party drove to ‘Willow Farm’ the Corrigall residence, where a ‘sumptuous wedding breakfast was served in a marquee erected in the grounds’. After feasting and numerous speeches, Janet’s father James bought out his gramophone and entertained the guests. Tea was then served and everyone adjourned to Frewen’s hall for dancing and socialising where 40 couples took part in the ‘Grand March’. The happy couple left for Dunedin the next morning showered with ‘rice and old boots’ on their honeymoon, where Janet’s dress was ‘navy blue crepe merle trimmed with cream silk and blue ribbons and a hat to match’. The presents gifted at the wedding were considered ‘costly and numerous including several cheques for substantial amounts’.

Apparently after Janet and William were married, they settled in Dunedin, where they began a business. I have been unable to determine what this business was, or anything else about their time in Dunedin.

Despite a wonderful celebration to begin their married life, sadly it was to be very short lived. Janet died six months later in Dunedin Hospital on the 18th of July, 1907 from complications in childbirth and it seems that sadly her baby was also lost. Janet was only 21 years old. The family story is that William was a seventh day adventist, and as such blood transfusions were not permitted, when Janet needed one.

The Dunstan Times, on the 29th of July 1907 reported that Janet was ‘for some six weeks’ confined to her bed with an attack of peritonitis. Peritonitis is inflammation of the peritoneum, a silk-like membrane that lines your inner abdominal wall and covers the organs within your abdomen, and is usually due to a bacterial or fungal infection.

Janet is buried at Omakau Cemetery, in Block 92, Plot 28. The inscription on her headstone reads: In Loving Memory of

Janet Wallace Died 18th July 1907 Aged 21 1/2 years Though Lost to Sight, To Memory Dear

William went onto to remarry for a third time to Elizabeth (Jean) Buchanan Miller who was born at Glenore near Milton. They had two sons and two daughters. William farmed at Hokonui in Southland for some years, before returning to Hillend to occupy his family’s homestead at Pukekoma, Hillend. William took an active interest in the affairs of the district, and acted as correspondent for the Free Press for some years. He also took a keen interest in general politics and spoke at political meetings. William apparently had a genial nature, and was much liked by those who knew him.

William died on the 19th of November 1933, aged 62, in the Balclutha Hospital where he had been a patient for three months suffering from pleurisy. He was buried in Balclutha Old Cemetery, Block MA, Plot 53.