George PATTERSON 1855 - 1921

Saturday, 31 March 2007

My Great Grandfather George Patterson was born in Scotland in 1855. George Patterson was the second son of James Paterson and his wife Jane Small, who were married in Dunning, Perthshire, Scotland on 18 May 1851, James was then aged 40 and worked as a shepherd at Lin Hill farm, south of Dunning, and Jane Small was 30 years old. James had been born around 1811 in Kincardine, Clackmannanshire, South of Dunning and Jane was born around 1821, in Forteviot, just north of Dunning, Perthshire, Scotland

 For several centuries Dunning lay on a main route between Perth and Stirling and has been steeped in history since the earliest times. There is an iron-age fort on the Dun Knock and a 1st century AD Roman camp at Kincaldie. Saint Serf is said to have killed a dragon there. There is a monument just outside Dunning to Maggie Wall, burnt as a witch in 1657. A standing stone outside the village is said to mark the site of the Battle of Duncrub in 964AD. St Serf's church in the centre of the village was rebuilt in the 19th century and has two-light arched Anglo-Saxon windows. The steeple of St. Serf's was completed in the Norman style around 1200, and remains largely intact.

Linen became Scotland's biggest manufacture in the eighteenth century, and Dunning like many others had become a village of handloom weavers. Today, Dunning has a population of 1000, two churches, three pubs, several shops, a primary school, two parks, a golf course, tennis courts and a bowling green, and is still very much a living, working village.

On 3rd April 1871 at the time of the census, the family Paterson were living at LATE GREEN Cottage, which is situated about five miles south of Dunning, between Tonguey Faulds and Lin Hill. The house was listed as having two windows. James Senior, aged 60, was the head of the household and his occupation was listed as shepherd. George, then aged 15, was a farm servant and his older brother James, aged 18, was single and a shepherd.  Their mother, Jane, was aged 50, and their sister Maggie, aged 14, was listed as a scholar. At that time, Paterson was spelt with one 'T'.

Ten years later, on 4 April 1881, another census took place and George, now aged 25 was working as a Wire Fencer. He still lived with his parents and sister at Late Green. Maggie ( Margaret married Alexander Francis Whitelaw in 1884 and they had one son and four daughters) was now aged 23, unmarried and was working as a dairy maid. James, aged 28, had married in Dunning in 1874 to Jane Dewett. James Junior still worked as a shepherd and lived with his wife Jane, also aged 28, and three daughters at Mundie Farm, Dron, Perthshire, about 8 miles East of Dunning. They had three daughters, Helen was 5 years old and had been born at Markinch, Fife to the north of Perthshirde, Jane was 3 years old and Margaret was 5 months old. Jane and Margaret were both born in Dron.

Marie Heilbrunn, Joan Turner (great grand daughters) and Ann Patterson visited Scotland in September 2002, and were taken to the ruins of Lin Hill and Late Green Cottages by Margaret and Sandy Salmean (Forestry Dept). We found a door manel with  IF ◊ KA 1668, meaning the house was built by a couple with the initials IF and KA in 1668!

The Forestry Dept purchased the land in the 1960's and the ruins are now in the middle of a spruce forest, about five miles from the lovely town of Dunning. Ann can now understand why Peter wants to build a stone house in Omarama!

According family stories George lived in the Ochil Hills near the scene of a train disaster in Scotland where in December 1879 the Tay Railway Bridge over the Tay Estuary collapsed during gale force winds. Seventy six train passengers were thrown into the sea below and George, then aged 24, was reported as having seen the lights on that night. Serious faults in the construction of the bridge were revealed later, including the fact that the bridge's inspector was unqualified and without experience.

 George came to New Zealand sometime afterwards, possibly 1882 after his father died, possibly via Australia.  Aunty Liz said that George was supposed to land in Port Chalmers, but landed in Lyttleton because of a storm, but this has not yet been confirmed.

George married Mary Dineen, born in Kilworth, County Cork, Ireland, in Oamaru on 25 Sept 1890. At that time, George was working as a musterer around Omarama, North Otago. Mary was 23 years of age when she and her sister Bridget, 19 years, sailed from Gravesend on the 2nd of August 1883 on the 'Nelson' and arrived at Port Chalmers, near Dunedin, on the 20th October 1883. The fare was one guinea but Mary also worked on board as a general servant during the journey to New Zealand. The 'Nelson' was one of six clipper ships built in 1874 by Robert Duncan for Patrick Henderson. 

George and Mary had seven children, including May, the youngest, who died at four months old and was buried in Hakataramea Cemetery. All the children were born at home. A midwife would come and look after Mary when she was going to have the baby. When James and Ellen were born the families place of residence was listed as Sandhurst. When Mary Jane, Amelia, Elizabeth and William arrived, the family’s place of residence was listed as Hakataramea. They lived on a small farmlet, about two miles into the Haka Valley.
       Patterson Family 1920's

George and Mary were listed in the NZ 1893 Electoral Roll:

Patterson, George, 2577
Electorate: Waitaki
Residential Address: Omarama
Occupation: Shepherd
Patterson, Mary, 3662
Residential Address: Hakataramea
Occupation: Domestic Duties

Elizabeth recalled later that ' a relative named Whitelaw' would send parcels topped with heather each year from Scotland. Her mother milked a cow and the ground was too stony to grow anything but onions. It was so cold in the winter that the hens' eggs would crack if you didn't get them as soon as they were laid and milk from the cow was like a sheet ice - you couldn't make butter from it and it had to be warmed up even to drink.' School would close for a time during the winter because it got too cold and Mary would teach the children at home. George was away mustered for six months of the year and would only come home on weekends. Whenever the children saw him coming down Slip Road (opposite the Waitaki Dam) they would run to greet him and he would let them ride home with him on his horse. He was head shepherd at Waitangi Station and also worked at Te Aka Station and would be paid about eight shillings (80 cents) for a day's work. In 1910, the family moved from Hakataramea to Maerawhenua, near Duntroon, where they bought a dairy farm when George's bad health prevented him from earning a living as a musterer. He died on the 10 August 1921, aged 66 years and is buried at Hakataramea Cemetery, near Kurow, NZ.

Sources: 1871 and 1881 British Census, Elizabeth Sainsbury (nee Patterson) and the Dunning Parish Historical Society.
© Marie Heilbrunn 2007