Mariana Paterson

Surname:

Paterson

Given names:

Mariana

Given address:

Waitaha Port Molyneux

Sheet No: 128

Town/Suburb:

Kaka Point

City/Region:

Otago

Notes:

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Mariana Gilbert was born in 1855 in Penzance, Cornwall, England – the daughter of Hannibal Lyne Gilbert, an agricultural labourer and missionary, and Elizabeth Congdon.

She emigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1860 on the Evening Star and she married Robert Paterson, a farmer, on 5 November 1872 in Port Chalmers.

At this time her father was working at the Seaman’s Bethel Mission in Port Chalmers.

Mariana and Robert had nine children, one who died in infancy and two who died in childhood.

Mariana signed the suffrage petition at 'Waitaha' in Port Molyneux – she appears to have been visiting as on the electoral roll her address is given as Balclutha.

They farmed at the Barnego Estate near Balclutha where Robert died in 1899.

After Robert’s death the farm was sold and Mariana moved to Dunedin with her family, she died at her home in Roslyn on 20 May 1930, she is buried with Robert in the family grave in the Balclutha Old Cemetery.

Her obituary said she 'was a well-remembered figure in the early life of the Clutha as the young and charming wife of the “Squire” of Barnego Flat.'