Originally mistranscribed as 'Mary P Miller'.
Notes provided by Helen Edwards, who has carried out extensive research on the women who signed Sheet 156. Download pdf of this research here.
Mary Dickson Millar, nee Rea [Mary D. Millar, Roslyn (transcribed as ‘Mary P. Miller’)] (No. 5)
Address: Bruce Street. Age in 1893: 67 years.
Mary Dickson Millar is believed to have been living in the household of Sarah (No. 4) and John Millar. She was the widow of James Poland Millar, a relation of John Millar, born in Edinburgh in 1820. Mary was born in Midlothian in 1826, the daughter of John Rae. Her mother’s name is unknown. Mary and James married in Edinburgh in 1845 and Mary gave birth to nine children. About 1864 they arrived in Dunedin, where their youngest child was born. James was an accountant in the Land Office for nearly 20 years, auditor of the Standard Property Investment Society and an Elder in the Presbyterian Church. In a period of financial difficulty in 1878, he was declared bankrupt. In 1881 he and their son, Walter Oliphant, signed the deeds for two adjoining properties in Ross Street, Roslyn. Mary and James lived in Ross Street until James’s death in 1885 and by 1890 Mary was renting out their house. She died in 1905, aged 79, at the house of her daughter, Jane Johnston Caffin. She is buried in Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery with her husband.
Obituary: James Poland Millar. Otago Witness, 26 September 1885 (Papers Past)