Addington Cemetery Tour Guide - Christchurch City Libraries

25 September 1872 Fraser officiated at the wedding of John Beattie, 25, labourer,
and Emma Stillwell, 21, who had cooked for the boarders at the school. In 1876 John
became school caretaker.
John was a stern figure held in awe by pupils and teachers. He looked after the fires –
there were 23 fireplaces in 1884; swept the floors; kept the clocks on time; and
cleaned and weeded the paths and grounds. When the headmaster was busy
instructing the pupil-teachers, he was in charge of the school.
Emma gave birth to and raised seven children in the caretaker’s cottage. In the periods
between her pregnancies and then after her child-bearing days, she was in charge of
cooking and first aid. The children were up at 6 a.m. and swept rooms, dusted seats
and cleaned basins before breakfast.
John Beattie, ‘prince of caretakers and self-constituted censor of the conduct of pupils
and teachers, to say nothing of inspectors and education boards’, died, at 70, on 10
June 1917. A son, Arthur John, took his place though Emma ‘wielded a broom [at the
school] until a year or so before her death’, at 84, on 7 June 1936. Arthur retired in
1948 and died, at 90, on 5 July 1969.
Row Q
No. 307
Twigger
Joseph Twigger had been born on 5 January and baptised on 28 December 1801 at
Bedworth Coventry, County Warwick, the first child of Frances Shipman and her
husband, the Rev. Joseph Twigger. The first Rev. Twigger had been born about 1763
and died at Bedworth in 1816. Frances married again. A prosperous woman, she
leased out her 85 acre farm at 150 pounds a year. It was known that, as his parents’
eldest son, Joseph would eventually inherit an income of about 300-400 pounds a
year.
Under instructions from his mother rather than because he wanted to, Joseph studied
at Oxford University and read for holy orders. His greatest interest was betting at
boxing matches.
While on vacation from Oxford, Joseph met Elizabeth Cole, a member of a wealthy
Leicester family, whose parents and guardian had died, and who was boarding near
Frances’s home. Despite the fact that his love letters were to be judged ‘rhapsodical
nonsense’, Elizabeth found Joseph a ‘young man of fascinating manners’, believed his
intentions to be honourable, that he intended to marry her and thus became pregnant.
Joseph did not intend to marry Elizabeth and took flight. When the authorities caught
up with him, they found that, on 10 December 1824, at St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, he
had married a widow, Catherine Lawton.
On 5 July 1825 Joseph was charged with breach of promise at the King’s Bench,
Westminster. Joseph accepted the bastardy bond but evidence was brought forward to
show that the plaintiff had had a relationship with another man and was thus a woman
Addington Cemetery
2007
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