Biography contributed by Chris McLennan
Margaret McPherson, youngest daughter of John and Margaret (nee Ross) Munro, was born 10 June 1864 at Fearn, Ross-shire. Her father was a blacksmith and her mother a midwife.
The family moved from Fearn to Glasgow in the 1870s, where they lived in Whiteinch until her parents immigrated to New Zealand with her younger brother, in 1885.
On 11 Nov 1885 in London, she married Roderick McPherson, a ship’s engineer, from Barvas, Isle of Lewis. Their first daughter was born in Govan, Glasgow, the next in Palmerston North, and the others in Napier where the family finally settled.
Margaret was widowed in 1904. She raised her four daughters in Napier, and later when her second daughter married, she became mother-in-law to Louis Hay, the architect responsible for some of the Art Deco buildings built in Napier after the 1931 earthquake.
She died in Napier 12 December 1937, and is buried in the Old Napier Cemetery.
Sources
Scotlands People
bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz
NZ electoral roll 1896
Family papers