Biography and image contributed by Lynda Richards
Mary Jane Stewart was the youngest member of the eleven children in the family of John Stewart and Janet McNaughton. She was born at Dunkeld, Parish of Caputh, Perthshire on 27 May 1857. The family left Scotland when Mary Jane was two years old.
They arrived at Lyttelton on the ship Cresswell on 12 September 1859.
John Stewart had been a gamekeeper at the Duke of Atholl’s estate at Middle Dalguise, Perthshire, where the family lived in one of the workers cottages. He took up farming at Brookside, where he named his property “Hatton Farm”, as a reminder of his origins in Scotland.
Mary Jane's marriage to Charles Taylor took place in the Wesleyan Church at Brookside on 18 June 1873. A family of eight children were all born at Brookside, south of Christchurch: John, William, Charles, Robert, Edwin, and three girls; Jessie, Mary Jane, and Sarah.
Mary Jane Stewart died at 12 Alliance Street, Riccarton, on 20 January 1918, and was buried at the Linwood cemetery.
Sources
Cyclopedia of New Zealand. Vol. 3. Canterbury. Pg. 690
BDM Historical Records http://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Scotland GRO http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
Papers Past http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Passenger List, “Cresswell” http://www.geni.com/projects/New-Zealand-Settler-Ships/
Christchurch cemeteries database http://ccc.govt.nz/services/cemeteries/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
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