James and Marion
James Brown was a survivor of the Napoleonic Wars and served in the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade from 1811 to 1829 when he discharged. On his record, he reenlisted for a second stint in Dublin. James could well have been involved in the Peninsular War against Napoleon as well as the Battle of Waterloo. All survivors received the very first campaign medals issued by the English Crown. The following image is sourced for reference and is not in the family archive.
In 1819 he married Marion Watt in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. Marion’s family were from Stewarton, Ayrshire, Scotland which is a separation of 25km in today’s measurement. Their first child was born in 1820 and by the time of emigration, there were 6 children, of whom 5 sailed for New Zealand and the second eldest child, Marion, remained behind and sailed with husband for Australia in 1852.
The BROWN family arrived in Port Chalmers, New Zealand on the 12 Dec 1848. They traveled on the ‘Bernicia’ and the trip lasted 121 days, so that would have been a slow trip. Between leaving and arriving, the ship stopped at New Plymouth, Nelson, Wellington and lastly Dunedin. There were a few things of interest along the way, such as the ship’s cannon being fired off the coast of New Plymouth, or the sight of toppled chimneys in Wellington caused by the recent earthquake. When they finally arrived at Dunedin, they were landed by by lighter and then on to quarantine for a week.
Onboard the ship, were the progenitors of the BROWN line in my family tree, namely James BROWN and Marion WATT and their family.
The ‘Bernicia’ is regarded as one of the early arrivals at Port Chalmers and the descendants of this ship were interviewed from time to time by the Otago Daily Times in a series of pioneer updates. Alongside the ‘Bernicia’, the other ships that were seen as the originals were the ‘John Wickliffe’, ‘Philip Laing’, ‘Victory’ and ‘Blundell’ all arriving in 1848.
According to Ngaiopress http://www.ngaiopress.com/bern-lst.htm James’ family are listed as below and some of them have been annotated to show a bit more of what happened after they arrived:
- Brown, James (49) [gardener, ag.; East Taieri; d. 19/4/1879];
- Marion née Watt, wife (44) [d. 29/5/1890];
- Janet (22) [servant; m. William Pollock (ex Philip Laing), butcher; d. Invercargill 18/3/1903];
- James (19) [servant, ag. East Taieri; d. 29/12/1887];
- John (15) [servant];
- Robert Watt (13) [ag.; Taieri];
- David (8) [ag. Otago];
- William McFarlane (3) [grandson of James and Marion] (son of Janet).
From arrival in 1848, James and Marion settled in “The Gully” AKA Maclaggan Street, Dunedin which was described as a place where people could live for free. As part of their passage, they initially worked for a Mr John Valpy who had essentially paid for the passage of James’ family. James had paid for his own passage out of proceeds from the sale of property in Scotland.
According to an account written in the Otago Witness from 1905, James and his family were housed for a time in a building built by Julius Jeffrey, intended for Mr Valpy, who duly arrived Jan 1849 on the ‘Ajax’. In 1851, James can be found in a list of prospective jurors with his occupation cited as Labourer, residing at Maclaggan Street, Dunedin. From several accounts given by their children, the family remained in Dunedin until 1853 before accruing the money necessary to move out onto the Taieri plains. That would have been 5 very long years in Dunedin, under difficult circumstances. There are other records of James living at Maclaggan Street as a “settler”. The actual subdividing on Otago didn’t commence until 1850.
The first official record of James and Marion moving to the Taieri is from the 1855 Electoral Roll which lists his property as Rural Section 65 East Taieri. They established their farm and house and named it ‘Greenlaw’, a name that can be found in Paisley in a number of street names. The name ‘Bernicia’ is also a street name at Port Chalmers.
James and Marion lived long lives with James passing in 1879 aged 90 and Marion in 1890 aged 95. James’ funeral was under the auspices of the East Taieri Rifles who carried out a full military ceremony, acknowledging James’ roll in the battle of Waterloo.
With Marion’s passing, the community turned out in numbers to honour a local identity, reflecting the position she held as matriarch in the East Taieri area.
Apart from “Greenlaw”, John, Robert Watt and James Jnr established themselves at East Taieri in the adjoining sections, 65 and 66. It is a little unclear, but John appears to have leased half the farm from his father. I will need to verify that. The other farm, “Arkleston”, carried on until the 1910s, but the name “Greenlaw” passed into obscurity early in the 1900s.
Image above taken from the 1898 Anniversary Special.
Given the fact that James was a Waterloo veteran, the local Rifles gave him a fitting send off at his funeral. We can only imagine what that would have looked like, but mention is made in almost all the papers of the time about the appearance of the East Taieri Rifles at James’ funeral.
Marion survived her husband by 11 years and died aged 95. Two very long-lived people.
Children of James Brown and Marion Watt
Clicking on the names of the person will take you to their information page .
| 1820 | Janet | Died | 1903 |
| 1824 | Marion | Died | 1895 |
| 1828 | James | Died | 1887 |
| 1830 | David | Died | 1923 |
| 1932 | John | Died | 1922 |
| 1834 | Robert Watt | Died | 1911 |
It is worth mentioning that David and James married two Crawford sisters, namely Christina and Janet respectively. And just to make this more real for my own STARK family, Christina and Janet’s brother, James, married Mary Stark near Waikoikoi. Mary and I are descended from Starks of Lanarkshire.
