Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Grace Hunter Charles Grieve was born in 1813 in Ayr, Scotland, the only child of William, a carpenter, and his wife and Jean/Jane nee Stewart.
Grace and Hugh Grange had a daughter Jane Stuart in Ayr in 1838 although they didn’t marry until 1851 in London. In 1841 Grace was living in her parents’ home with her two-year-old child, and no husband home.
Hugh Grange was one of the six children of James, a tidewaiter, and Margaret, nee Steel. He was also born in Ayr around 1812. There were five sons and one daughter, and all five sons grew up to be ship’s captains.
In 1857 Hugh arrived in Sydney, NSW, Australia as Captain of the Brisbane from Greenock, included in the passengers were Mrs Grange and daughter, and they all came together to Auckland on Gertrude the same year. The next year daughter Jane was married to Joseph Rowe Gard in Mahurangi, and they farmed near her parents for some years.
Captain Hugh Grange, who owned and ran a coastal schooner called Tattycorum, bought 200 acres on the banks of the Mahurangi River. Capt. Grange built his house on the southeast corner of this property where there was easy tidal access to a branch of the Te Whau (Dawson's) Creek. The only access to the property until 1912 was from the river. The house was named H'arbour View' as there was a clear view down to the river mouth from the homestead.
Grace’s husband Captain Hugh Grange died in 1874 at Mahurangi, and is buried in the Warkworth Cemetery. In 1880 leave was given to administer a piece of land at Yarraville (Melbourne) Victoria, Australia valued at 125 pounds, with no personal property, leaving it to the widow and only child. In the Warkworth Presby cemetery, there is a headstone to (brothers) Captain Hugh Grange, Captain William Grange, Captain Alexander Grange. William drowned in the South Island in 1863 and Alexander, suddenly in Nagasaki, Japan in 1874.
Grace continued to live at Mahurangi and died there in 1900, aged 87, although her death notice in the newspaper gave her age as 90. She was recorded as the oldest resident in the township. 'The coffin was covered with wreaths and other floral tokens of respect and affection from her numerous friends and intimate acquaintances. On Sunday evening the Rev. R. McKinney preached a sermon in which he eulogised the many virtues of the deceased, and also gave a brief recapitulation of her long life's history, during which she had nobly fulfilled the onerous duties that usually fall to the lot of pioneer settlers in a new country.' She was buried with her husband in the Presbyterian section of the Warkworth Cemetery.
Grace is the aunt of 378 Ariadne GRANGE
Sources
PAPERS PAST Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1013, 13 March 1857, Page 2
PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11500, 11 October 1900, Page 6
PAPERS PAST Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 228, 4 October 1911, Page 5
https://register.notabletrees.org.nz/tree/view/753
Grange/Grieve marriage certificate 1851 (sighted)
1841 census: Alloway Street, Ayr, Scotland (ancestry.com)
1851 census: Whitechapel, London, England (Class: HO107; Piece: 1545; Folio: 436; Page: 22; GSU roll: 174775)