Anne (Annie) Lalor Nixon

A family record (the same record as for her death in a NZ mental institution) states that Annie was born in 1839 in Chapelizod, Kilree, Grovebeg, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, but this has yet to be verified from official records. It is indeed likely she was born in Kilkenny because census records for her siblings state this to be their birthplace.

The marriage of Anne Lalor Nixon to James Adams took place in Greenwich, London, in December 1863. The marriage register [viewed online through Ancestry] states that they were bachelor and spinster, both of full age. James' address is given as Southsea, Hampshire, and the address for Anne is London, St. ... (illegible). The witnesses were Robert and Maria Wilson.

A later reading of ADAMS memoirs sheds more light on Anne's heritage. The only family witness to the marriage was Anne's sister Maria Wilson and her husband Robert, a draper. Anne had been a 'Ward in Chancery' [which probably means there was a settlement regarding her upbringing and inheritance, possibly through illegitimacy]. This needs to be checked out at the National Archives in Kew. A family memoir states there was a dowry of £400 which was released after the marriage.

According to ADAMS family memoirs, Anne was connected to the Izods of Chapel Izod.

Regarding the spelling of the middle name, Anne spelled it Lalor (as seen in her signature at her marriage to James, and in some of the baptism records for her children). However, the name Lawlor is connected with Chapelizod, and her sister Maria used the spelling Lawler.

Family records state she died in Avondale Mental Hospital, Auckland, on 2 November 1916, aged 77, having been in poor mental health since the family's arrival in NZ. Hospital records seen by the family indicate that son Ernest Feltus was notified of her death, and son Cecil arranged for her funeral.

Further note by MHB, 4 December 2020: is this a red herring or really quite significant? - In the 1861 Isle of Man census (at a time when James Adams was teaching near Oxford), a young unmarried woman aged 22 was a school mistress at the Bishop's Palace, the household of Horace/Horatio Powys, Bishop of Sodor & Man. Her name was Ann (or Annie, the handwriting is difficult to read) LALOR and she was born in Ireland. Is this our Annie? In which case, it could have been through her connections that James later obtained his job as head of the grammar school there, and through her acquaintance that the Bishop of Sodor & Man sent a recommendation to the Bishop of Auckland for James to be given a position in NZ.