Married Four Times

Henry Charles Clarke Wright was a successful businessman, and produced numerous photos of Wellington and his family exploring the outdoors in his spare time.

Born in London in 1844, the Wright family emigrated to Melbourne in the 1850s. In 1866 he married his first wife, Amy Eliza Harley. Together they had three children: Amy (born 1867), Henry (born 1869) and Beatrice (born in March 1871). He was trained as an accountant and supported the family working as a clerk for a company of merchants.

On 6th July 1871, without warning Henry left the family home and travelled to Hong Kong with a woman named Mary Woolman. Henry had been meeting Mary at a local pub for some months. On board the ship they represented themselves as a married couple. In December he was arrested in Hong Kong for embezzling his employer’s money and bought back to Melbourne. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was jailed for six months. In the meantime, Mary gave birth to a little boy that she named Robert Henry Clarke Woolman.

After Henry’s release, he and Mary went to New Zealand. It wasn’t until 1874 that Amy Wright had sufficient money to bring about a divorce case. She charged Henry with adultery. The marriage was finally dissolved following year, and Henry married Mary in Auckland They had two further children: Reginald (born 1876) and Elizabeth Minnie (born 1882). The family moved to Wellington in 1877. Sadly their eldest son Robert died in 1880.

In 1885, Mary sued Henry for divorce on the grounds of cruelty and adultery. A deed of separation was issued, but this was not sufficient for Mary and the following year she requested a judicial separation. Mary accused Henry of committing adultery with Mary Keeley, a married woman. He in return charged her with committing adultery with Frank Parkes. After Mary’s lawyer called a witness, Henry dropped his charge. The judicial separation was granted. Henry retained custody of Reginald and Mary had the custody of Minnie.

The house and maintenance that Henry was ordered to pay Mary did not eventuate. In reduced circumstances, Mary turned to prostitution. Henry made an application for legal custody of Minnie in 1888, on account of her mother’s ‘conduct’. The court granted the application.

The series of photos that Henry took at about this time in the late 1880s include Amy, his eldest daughter from his first marriage. Perhaps he sent for her from Australia to help take care of her young half-siblings. These photos show Henry and his children on walks around Wellington, on picnics and visiting beauty spots. During Lord Onslow’s term as Governor of New Zealand, Henry was appointed landscape photographer to his Excellency. He was also the photographer of the Karaka Bay raupo on our previous story: https://www.wellingtonboots.co.nz/blog/house-amp-whare

Henry’s third marriage was to Elizabeth Hughes-Hallet in 1907. She died in 1927. His fourth married took place in 1928, when the eighty-four year old Henry married Glory Elizabeth Quayle. Glory was twenty-eight years old.

Henry died in 1936, aged ninety-one. His will stipulated that on the second day after his death his heart should be removed to ensure that he was dead. He bequeathed his extensive library to the Alexander Turnbull Library and prior to his death he presented a collection of valuable orchids to the Botanical Gardens. The Evening Post wrote ‘In his fifty-nine years in Wellington the late Mr Wright became one of the city’s best-known figures. He has been described as the most benevolent-looking debt-collector in the world’. (Mr Henry Wright, Evening Post, 22 May 1936 p.11). None of his obituaries mentioned his domestic life.

Henry’s children:

Henry’s daughter Amy married George Moreton in Australia in 1896. Reginald married Rima Ropata Tangahoe in 1906 and they had two children. He died of wounds in Egypt while serving in WWI. Minnie married Henry Smith in 1902 and they had six children.

Image:

Henry Wright and family. Wright, Henry Charles Clarke, 1844-1936 :Negatives. Ref: 1/1-020458-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23171586

References:

Divorce Case Number 251, Public Record Office Victoria (retrieved from www.ancestry.co.uk)

Intercolonial News, New Zealand Herald, 14 May 1875, p3

Probate R23114399, Archives New Zealand

https://wellington.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/3165

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/124444582/grand-villas-first-owner-henry-wright-turns-out-to-be-quite-the-scoundrel