noted from NZ History – Samuel Parnell achieved fame as the founder of the eight-hour working day in New Zealand, a right he had fought for a carpenter at Petone in early 1840. Today his name is often linked with Labour Day, which has celebrated as a holiday since 1900.
Who is he? Where did he come from? Why is he doing this? What is his occupation?
A matter of the discovery in our mother’s father’s side family, his name was linked to my late grandfather’s ancestor. Wow, and I did not expect that. Whenever I do the genealogy and our family have hidden surprise or sad history, for example, one of our ancestor linked to Norman Kirk who he was a Prime Minister or John Follett whom he was researching in growing ginger in Waikato and the USA.
Samual Duncan Parnell born on February 19, 1810, and raised in London, England. He trained as carpenter’s apprentice until 1834 at joinery on Theobold’s Road in London. The Grand National Consolidated Trades Union formed in 1834 and carpenters worked long hours including Samuel. Samuel asked the union if they can support the shortening of the working day, but the union did not agree, and Samuel refused to join the union.
One day, Samuel met his first wife – Mary Ann Canham in 1839, and 11 days after they got married, they left for Wellington, New Zealand. Mary Ann was widowed when she met Samuel, and they bought a large property of the land in Wellington. One of their areas, it was Port Nicholson, later today it is a city of Wellington. The amount of their land was 40 ha of a country land plus 1-acre of the property as a Port Nicholson in the old days.
Before arriving in Wellington, Samuel met a shipping agent – George Hunter and Samuel said that the condition of working 8 hours per day is a must, no overtime. Hunter found it difficult, and later, he agreed with Samual. The quote that Samuel gave out “Eight hours’ labour, Eight hours’ recreation, Eight hours’ rest.” and this quote was from Robert Owen in 1817. Every day Samuel greet new migrants and told them to work 8 hours per day if anyone who has work overtime and anyone would be thrown into the harbour. That quote was the moment to everyone in 1841 and the 8 hours day cemented from 1841.
Mary Ann died in 1842, and there were no children. Samuel sold the land in Hutt Valley and moved to Karoi where he runs an animal farm as a farmer in 1843. In 1851, Samuel met one of our ancestors – Sarah Sophia Brunger, another widow for she married Robert Brunger and had several children.
Samuel and Sarah returned to Wellington in 1873, and they lived in Cambridge Terrace, Wellington. Unfortunately, Sarah died in 1888 and Parnell have no natural children through Sarah while Sarah’s children came from James Brunger. Samuel died on December 17, 1890, and there was a significant public funeral three days after he died. There were a thousand of people respected Samuel and his idea – 8 hours per day.
Note: the first annual Labour Day was October 28 1890, and you can see the drawing below where many employers and merchants campaign to force the Government to restrict the working hours. Then the Labour Day Act 1899 established and became a statutory holiday. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/first-labour-day-celebrations
In our family – Sarah has got three children before married Samuel Parnell. One of her children was Elizabeth, who later married Robert Signal and they have a large number of children in Marton, Wanganui, New Zealand. Their eldest daughter – Agnes Signal married to my late great, great grandfather – Charles James Follett.
Life in Eureka 