George Froggatt (1E23), the son of Isaac Froggatt (1D8) and Lucy (née Chatham), was born on September 29th, 1839, at Ashford Bowdler, Salop. He married Priscilla Andrews on March 15th, 1864, at Old Street Primitive Methodist Church, Ludlow, and they emigrated to New Zealand later that year. They had three children, born in Invercargill. After Priscilla died in 1910, George married Rubina May Wallace at Invercargill in 1911. George died on July 24th, 1912 on Lake Wanaka, and was buried at Invercargill.
The following obituary was published in the Southland Times, July 25th, 1912, under the headline "Death of Mr. George Froggatt, suddenly at Kingston".
Mr. George Froggatt, one of the most highly esteemed residents of Invercargill, died suddenly while travelling between Queenstown and Kingston on the lake steamer yesterday morning. The news was telephoned to the town and became generally known about noon. Many expressions of regret were to be heard in the streets, and on all sides sympathy is being extended to the relatives of the deceased.
The deceased gentleman had had a long and distinguished public career. He was born in the year 1839 in Shropshire, England, where he was educated and brought up to country life. On reaching the age of twenty-one he took up a farm on his own account and worked it for four years, during which he became a Methodist local preacher. In the year 1864 he came out to New Zealand in the ship "Adjmere" and took up residence at Mount Pleasant, between Dunedin and Port Chalmers; but finally settled in Invercargill. He became a road contractor and followed that vocation until the year 1867, when he acquired a butchery business which he conducted until the year 1886. Later on, in the year 1888, he established his auctioneering, stock and station agency business and conducted this up to the time of his death. In his relations with the Church Mr. Froggatt had always been prominent, and many of the results of his efforts will remain to mark his energy and enterprise. When he arrived in Ivercargill in the year 1864 there was no Primitive Methodist Church established, and he attached himself to the Don St. Wesleyan Church, of which he continued to be a member for about eight years. He then established the first Primitive Methodist Church in Invercargill, and was then appointed circuit steward. He retained this office until the time of his death, and was thus the only circuit steward the members of the local Primitive Methodist Church have ever elected. He was, twenty-five years ago, once president of the Primitive Methodist Conference - the most honoured office the Church could bestow upon him. A notable work performed by Mr. Froggatt was the inauguration of the Superannuated Ministers’. Widows’ and Orphan’s Fund. About the time of his presidency of the conference he expressed himself as very anxious that a supplementary fund should be established as the amount allowed to retire ministers at Home was not sufficient for them to live on in New Zealand. For twenty-five years he had been the treasurer and one of the strongest advocates of the system, with the result that the fund has today a capital value of something over £5000. He remained treasurer of the Fund at the time of his death.
In public life Mr. Froggatt has always been recognised as a man whose advice and guidance in the administration of public affairs was of more than ordinary value. In the year 1877 he was elected to the Borough Council, and was a member up to the year 1907. During the years he was associated with the Council Mr. Froggatt was twice Mayor, once in the year 1885 and again in 1903, and the services he rendered to the town invariably made for its progress and prosperity. As a Justice of the Peace he was very active and has frequently occupied the Bench at the local courts of late. For two years he was a member of Southland High School Board, and he held office on the Southland Education Board for twelve years, being once chairman. Among the other important offices the deceased gentleman had held were those of director of Southland Building Society, President of the A. and P. Society and chairman of the Middle School Committee of which he was a member for over twenty years.
He leaves to mourn their loss a wife, two sons, and seven grand-children. The sons are Doctor G.E. Froggatt, medical superintendent of the Shoreditch Infirmary, London, and Mr. A.S. Froggatt of Invercargill. Their sister, the late Mrs. E.B. Jones, died about nineteen years ago.