John was born 26 April 1832 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. As a young man of 16, he travelled on the ‘Bernicia’ with his parents and siblings arriving December 1848 at Port Chalmers, near Dunedin.
The family established themselves at Maclaggan Street, Dunedin, which is in what is now central Dunedin. He would have been too old for school, so one can only guess about how he filled his time, but it is likely that he would have assisted his father.
In 1857, John is shown as being an Agriculturalist at East Taieri, but by 1863, he would be tied as leasee of Section 65 of the Irregular Block at East Taieri. He leased half the block alongside his brother Robert in what would become ‘Arkleston’ farm. His residence though, was Green Island, a suburb of southern Dunedin and that would remain so until 1887.
John married Mary Rae Gillespie in Dunedin 20 April 1871. Their “Intention To Marry” is in the link below. A point of interest is the time spent in Dunedin, which is stated as a week. Mary’s death certificate indicates that she arrived in New Zealand in 1871. They married at the Registrar’s Office in Dunedin.
From 1887, John and Mary appear to have moved out of Green Island to an area of the Taieri named/denoted as ‘Silverside’. This name appears to have been somewhat local in nature and bounded between Bush and Riccarton Roads, near Mosgiel. Riccarton road crosses over a branch of the Taieri River, known as Silverstream, hence ‘Silverside’. There is a lot of mention of Silverside through the early papers, with many families using ‘Silverside’ in their residency location.
When John sold his share of Section 65 to Robert, it seems at that point they moved into their “Silverside” house off Riccarton Road. The dates need to be confirmed. The house is situated on the outskirts of Mosgiel as per the following :-
Supporting this, on several of the children’s school records, you can see the children leaving Taieri School for Wylies Crossing School, which opened in 1894.
John remained a labourer for the remainder of his working life as seen in Electoral Rolls. Mary is seen with Domestic Duties. There are several articles, where John is involved in agricultural events that the newspapers of the times carried.
Mary died in 1917 and John in 1922. The following snippets both taken from the Otago Daily Times illustrating the name ‘Silverside’ as their last residence.
On Mary’s death certificate, it lists Henry Gillispy and Mary Wrey as her parents, which is where some confusion has arisen with Mary’s surname. The name has been written on official documents as Wrey, Wren, Raie, Rae and Ray, but they are all the same name, just phonetically written by people over time.
John’s death certificate states that he lived on Riccarton Road, East Taieri, which is aligned to the “Silverside” location of death announcement in the newspaper. The house was transferred to Agnes and Jeanie and was sold by Agnes when Jeanie died in 1953.
Mary was 77 and John 89 years old at time of their deaths, respectively.
John and Mary are both buried in East Taieri Cemetery, at Plot 247, Block DD. Their two unmarried daughters are also buried alongside them in the same grave and plot. Sadly, there is no headstone on the grave, just a bare grass strip.
The children of John Brown and Mary Rae Gillespie
| 1871 | Mary “Kate” Catherine | Died | 1901 |
| 1872 | Marion | Died | 1955 |
| 1875 | Jane “Jennie“ | Died | 1952 |
| 1876 | John “Jack” Henry | Died | 1940 |
| 1881 | Helen “Ellen” Gillespie | Died | 1954 |
| 1884 | Agnes | Died | 1973 |
Summary of John and Mary’s children
The hunt for the children of John and Mary has been slow, given their names and numbers of potential doppelgängers living in Otago at the same time. And to complicate matters even more, two of the daughters used different names to their birthnames, namely Helen became Ellen and Jane became Jennie.
Kate died in Balfour, Southland. “Jennie” and Agnes never married with both passing away at ‘Silverside’, East Taieri. John Henry AKA “Jack” married Caroline Lane and had 5 children and he passed away in Oamaru. Helen, AKA Ellen, died in Balclutha (Inch Clutha), while Marion passed away at Dunedin. Only the two unmarried daughters spent their entire lives in Dunedin and all the other children married and left the district, some returning later in life though.
There has been a suggestion that Mary Catherine is not a family member, yet the author shares common ancestor DNA with several descendants of John Henry’s family.