Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Jessie McKenzie was born in the Highlands, Scotland around 1817 to parents Murdoch and Annabella. With their children, they immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada.
Jessie married Duncan McKenzie in 1839 in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Duncan was born in 1808 in Nova Scotia to Scottish parents John and Ann.
They had four children born in Cape Breton;
- Margaret (1842–1938)
- Kenneth (1843–1881)
- Norman (1847–1924)
- John (1850–1916) mariner
Norman McLeod was a minister in Nova Scotia with a large following. When he decided in 1847 that the colony should to Australia, Duncan and his brother Murdoch became the leaders of the movement, helped to finance and build the ships, and enrolled 300 of the settlers for the migration. Included in the immigrants were Jessie’s parents and Duncan’s widowed mother. In the brig Highland Lass they left for Adelaide, Australia in 1852, where they resided for about a year, and where Jessie’s father, Murdoch died.
After about six months residence in there, the brothers purchased the brigantine Gazelle, and set sail for New Zealand, having on board nearly all the passengers who came out in the brig, as they wore unable to obtain any land at the time from the South Australian Government. Arriving at Auckland in January 1853, they hired a longboat and sailed north to Whangarei and Waipu, where they selected an area of land for the Highland settlement.
Duncan established himself in business in Auckland as storekeeper, general agent and ship chandler, mainly to look after the interests of the settlers at Waipu. Whilst living in Auckland, another child was born:
- Murdoch (1855–1875)
Duncan McKenzie then built a house at One Tree Point where they lived for four or five years. 'Their home there, as it had been in Nova Scotia, was the centre where outgoing and incoming traders and travellers were wont to congregate, and it was again a home of that unselfish liberality peculiar only to the early days'. And where their last children were born:
- Annie Alice (1857–1943)
- Alexander (1859–1931)
- Arabella (1862–1946)
In 1875 their son Mudoch died aged 20. And in 1881 their son Kenneth was drowned in the schooner Rona on the Kaipara Bar, with another man. Four of their sons followed in the wake of their husband and uncle and became master mariners. At one time the McKenzies in charge of vessels were so numerous that on one day no fewer than nine master mariners, all named McKenzie, and all related, sailed their respective vessels into the Waitemata harbour.
Duncan did much to promote the development of the settlement, introduced the first threshing machine to Waipu and established saleyards at Cove. He took a prominent part in public life and represented Marsden in the Provincial Council 1861–65, after the retirement of his brother Murdoch. Duncan died in 1911 after three years' confinement to bed on account of blindness and infirmity, aged 86. He was buried in the Waipu Cemetery. In his will Duncan left his 800acre farm to son John, the livestock excepting two cows for wife Jessie, farming implements, dwelling house and contents (except for the pianoforte for daughter Bella). Jessie got the benefit from monies invested and to live in the house for her natural life. After Jessie’s death it was to be divided into six equal parts, for children except John who is provided for. He made an interesting codicil to the will, that the farm for John may not be sold, mortgaged or diminished in size for 40 years after Duncan’s death.
Jessie lived until 1911 when she died in Whangarei, aged 94 years. In part, the newspaper obituary stated, 'Mrs McKenzie's disposition was frank, open, and outspoken, her whole life was above reproach in the smallest particular, and she was universally beloved. Her greatest joy in life was to help other people at the willing sacrifice of her own time, comfort, or convenience.'
Sources
PAPERS PAST Daily Southern Cross, Volume x, Issue 650, 20 September 1853, Page 2
PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6868, 21 November 1883, Page 4
PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9243, 4 July 1893, Page 3
PAPERS PAST Northern Advocate, 1 May 1911, Page 4
Archway Duncan probate
Sailors and Settlers – the Migration of Highlanders from Nova Scotia to New Zealand in the 1850s and 1860s by John McLean, Winter Productions, Wellington, 2010
The Gael Fares Forth by NR McKenzie, Whitcombe & Tombs, Wellington 1942
To the Ends of the Earth by Neil Robbinson, Harper Collins, NZ 1997