Australian Dress Register

The Ada Petherbridge (nee Bonarius) wedding dress was worn by Ada Adeline Bonarius who married wine and spirit merchant Thomas Samuel Petherbridge on the 19th of October, 1880 at Fairview House High Street, East Maitland.  

Ada was born in Nundle NSW, in 1860. She was one of six children in the family to survive to adulthood of seventeen who were born. Her parents, Margaret and John Charles Bonarius, moved there from Newcastle. John and Margaret moved the family to Fairview House in High Street in 1877. It was here that Ada married Thomas. A notice appeared in the Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser on Saturday the 13th of November, 1880. 

Initially Ada and Thomas lived above Thomas’ shop in Melbourne Street, East Maitland (just south of the rail underpass, opposite the Hunter River hotel). Around 1889 they moved to Torquay at 50 King Street (“neat in style and admirably ventilated” according to the Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser in 1886). This seven room residence was built by Thomas’ father William, who died in 1889. It is assumed that upon William’s death Thomas took possession of the house and undertook renovations resulting in the home which stands today, complete with a tennis court, fowl yards, a four bay garage and a profusion of flowers, paths, trellises and a large ornamental urn.  

Ada gave birth to eleven children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. It was the youngest and last surviving daughter, Gertrude, who donated her mother’s wedding gown to Grossmann House in the 1970s (in conjunction with her granddaughter Marcia ‘Chick’ Gordon, a descendant of Ernest Petherbridge (who continued the family business) who married Myra Marion Graham and bore Chick).  

Chick Gordon remembers Ada being a quiet lady with a great love for her fernery, tatting and crochet. “She was a presence," Chick reminisces, "always there, quietly observing." 

Ada died in 1946. 

Thomas was a wine and spirit (and cigar and tea) merchant, who bought F. & T. Petherbridge Bros. off his father upon his father’s illness in 1877 (a public noticed “beg[ged] to acquaint Mr Petherbridge’s numerous customers that there will be NO CHANGE nor ALTERATION in conducting business; and [that] they trust that by attention to the orders of their customers, and selling at the lowest figures, they will receive a continuance of that patronage so liberally bestowed for so many years to their predecessor”). It was the success of F. & T. Petherbridge Bros. in both Maitland and Newcastle that ensured Ada and Thomas’ prosperous lifestyle. 

Queen Victoria popularised white wedding dresses, of which Ada’s dress is an example. Interestingly, both Ada and Queen Victoria also had orange blossom flowers, a symbol of fertility, trimming their dresses (Queen Victoria had blossoms trimming her wreath, in place of a tiara, too).  

Marriage notice, reading “Marriage – Petherbridge – Bonarius- On the 19th October, at Fair View House, the residence of the bridge’s parents, by the Rev. William Bain, of Newcastle, Thomas Samuel Petherbridge, Wine and Spirits Merchant, East Maitland, to Adeline, eldest daughter of John Charles Bonarius”, and other notices,

Marcia ‘Chick’ Gordon oral history,  

Grossmann House object record 

Love, Desire and Riches, The Fashion of Weddings at Old Government House 10th July- 1st November, 2015 

Trimmed with blonde lace (a continuous bobbin lace, made of silk) round the neck and front, as well as pleated trim. The overskirt is finished with bows and wax orange blossoms (there are also blossoms on the neck and sleeves).    

The train is kilted, with cotton lace trim. 

Taffeta, a fine, lustrous silk with a crisp texture

Both hand and machine sewn  

No label 

Fair, fragile condition. Darkening and discolouration of blonde lace, shattering of silk taffeta especially at the underarms and age spots throughout. 

Possible insect damage, especially around the bow at the front.