A fact from Jessie Weston (writer) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 August 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that New Zealand writer Jessie Weston wrote for William Ernest Henley's magazine for 18 months without him knowing she was a woman?
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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that New Zealand writer Jessie Weston wrote for William Ernest Henley's magazine for 18 months without him knowing she was a woman? Source: "I had written for the New Review for some 18 months before Mr. Henley became aware that his contributor was a woman, and when I disclosed my personal identity to him he was greatly surprised and amused ..." [1]
ALT1:... that the 1890 novel Ko Meri by New Zealand writer Jessie Weston included a scene in which the sun sets in the east? Source: "Thus, describing an evening scene at Parnell, she tells how 'the sun sank to the cone of Rangitoto' — a direction in which no mortal Parnellite ever saw the sun sinking." [2]
ALT2:... that New Zealander Jessie Weston said she encountered no sexism in her career as a journalist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Source: "[Weston] considers journalism to be the only profession in which there is absolutely no prejudice against sex, the one qualification necessary being capability." [3]
Comment: I prefer ALT0, but appreciate that the source is an interview with the article subject and I'm not sure whether that is a problem for the purpose of this hook. ALT1 and ALT2 proposed as alternatives. Thanks in advance, and grateful for any improvements (to the hooks or the article).
Kia ora Emma, nice article. Given that the birth date is imprecise, I thought I'd have a look what Ancestry.com has on offer. Not that that's a reliable source, but often when you know the date you can find something in newspapers. She appears in eight public trees on that website but no more precision. What I did learn from that exercise is that her parents were John Weston and Ann Maria (nee Cleaver). Next place: the BDM database. There, I find birth certificate 1893/15284 (which is strange, as the first four digits are always the birth year) and that resolves for a birth date of 22 February 1867. The parents are listed as Ann Maria and John, so we have agreement with Ancestry on her parents. I could not find any birth announcement in Auckland newspapers for that time (which is fine; not everyone advertises the birth of their children). Have we got the correct person? Not sure, because it gets strange from here on in.
The National Library has a number of entries for our author, for example this 1998 piece in The New Zealand Herald. Pay attention to what it says in the left sidebar: "Weston, Jessie, 1868?–1944" I've seen NatLib getting things wrong before but the 1944 birth year matches all eight entries for Ancestry, though. Seven of those eight entries say that she died on 5 February 1944 in Auckland. The New Zealand Herald has the death announcement:
WESTON—On February 5, 1944, at the Auckland Hospital, Jessie Edith, late of Gladstone Road, Mount Albert, formerly of Copeland Street, younger daughter of the late John and Maria Weston, of Auckland. A service will be held at Watney Sibun and Sons' Chapel, Khyber Pass, Newmarket, at 1 p.m. to-day (Monday), followed by private cremation.
I'm still not quite convinced that we've got the right person, though. The other thing that doesn't make sense is that according to Ancestry, John Weston, her father, died on 8 March 1914 in Auckland. The only detail I could find about that in newspapers was that probate was granted, as announced by The New Zealand Herald on 4 April 1914. Anyway, maybe you want to do a bit more digging yourself. Schwede6610:17, 15 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Schwede66: Thank you for this, really appreciated! I'd seen the birth reference 1894/15284 and been puzzled by the reference number as well (how did you find out the birth date from that as 22 February 1867, out of curiosity?). Interestingly, Libraries Australia Authorities has the following comment:
E-mail from bibliographer, 6 June 2010 (Miss Jessie Weston, the New Zealand authoress ; I believe this is her birth on the NZ births, deaths and marriages database: 1867/9041 Weston, Jessie Edith (Amdt Act 92). There is another birth entry: 1893/15284 Weston, Jessie Edith. In fact, this may also be her as the year is that of registration, not necessarily that of birth. Amdt Act 92 refers to the Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment Act of 1892 which allowed for registration of births after more than six months.
When I searched the BDM database, I couldn't find any earlier entries under 1867/009041 (either searching reference or name). (Perhaps you should check this also in case I'm not searching it correctly?)
Our Jessie Weston definitely died in the UK in 1939 (based on the two NZ articles referencing her death, [4] and [5]). I've just searched FreeBMD and found her death notice in Chelsea, I think: she is recorded as Jessie W. Campbell, died between April to June 1939, aged 74. The scan is available here. If her age at death was 74 this makes her birthdate around 1865... and the BDM database does record another Jessie Weston, 1865/25498 (parents Isabella and William, no middle name given).
So now I'm wondering if in fact our Jessie Weston was born in 1865? And she's been mixed up with the Jessie Edith Weston born in 1867, who died in 1944? It seems unlikely, but then unlikelier things have happened, and I've already found it a little tricky to keep one other Jessie Weston separate. It might even be that her middle name isn't Edith at all; I'll need to check where else that is found, but if she's been mixed up with the 1867 Jessie Weston, it's entirely possible that Edith comes from that.
A further exciting development. Jessie's father is described in newspaper articles about her as being a contributor to the Daily Southern Cross. So after looking at the above, I did a search on Papers Past and have found an article about the sudden death of R.W. Weston in 1866. The details fit; it mentions him living in Whangarei and then Parnell (Weston definitely grew up in Parnell), and he writes for the Daily Southern Cross and other newspapers. He left a wife and infant daughter at the time of his death (as well as an earlier family in Australia, apparently). I think this is her father (presumably R. William Weston?), in which case, I think Jessie is the 1865 birth, and not a 1867/8 birth at all, which fits with her death notice.
Great. Looking better already. I note, however, that the Bank of Auckland failed in April 1867, i.e. half a year after her father's death. The whole thing unfolded over the course of three weeks and before the bank manager tried to do a runner on 2 April 1867, there does not appear to have been anything of public concern. That's at least the impression I got after reading a number of articles. I thus wonder whether the "lost money through the failure of the bank" part is even true. Schwede6623:11, 15 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Schwede66: Oooh, good catch on the Bank of Auckland. Given that it's her recollection in an interview many years later (of the father who died when she was less than 2-years-old), it could absolutely be wrong. I'll have a search and see if I can find any more about her father. I've now found her mother's death notice (1914) as well so will add that in. Re the nephews, amazing catch, but can we be sure that they're hers and not the other Jessie Weston's? Cheers, Chocmilk03 (talk) 23:36, 15 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Cheers! Looks like it's 8 March 1865, although no luck tracking down any birth announcements in the newspaper around that time or anything like that. Will look more later! Chocmilk03 (talk) 02:57, 16 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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New enough, long enough, no copyvio, well cited. And pass. I also prefer ALT0; it's quite interesting. Htanaungg (talk) 06:39, 15 August 2021 (UTC)