Mrs Holland

Mrs Holland, The Glen, Dunedin [Sara Fossitt Holland]
Sarah or Sara was born on the 26th June 1835 near Portarlington, Queens county (county Laois), Ireland. She was the eldest child of John Fossitt and Elizabeth Fossitt who were first cousins once removed. The family had probably originally come from England in the seventeenth century and were farmers and business people. Sara had nine surviving siblings, and when she was about 10 they moved back to the family farm at Walsh Island, Kings county (county Offaly). It is likely that she and her five sisters were educated at home.
In 1862 she married William Anthony Holland, a gentleman farmer from near Ballinsaloe, county Galway; the Holland family were distantly related, as was common with Protestant families. William had been born in Borrisokane, county Tipperary, probably about 1840. Sara and William had four children in quick succession, Margaret Elizabeth, Eva Marion, Trevor Obediah and Charles Joseph, between 1863 and 1867.
At this time in Ireland there was a growing resentment of the power and wealth of Protestant farmers, and while we don’t know why they emigrated, this was likely to have been part of the reason why Sara and William decided to leave the country. We also have no idea why they chose New Zealand: they had extended family in Canada, America, England and Australia. The family arrived in Dunedin in November 1879 on the Wanganui, and mainly lived in the Roslyn area thereafter; William is described as a farmer, settler and crockery dealer in early electoral rolls, and their sons were soon contributing to the family income.
Although neither of her daughters had children, both sons did and Sara lived to see them all; she died on the 28th November 1915 and was buried at the Southern cemetery in Dunedin.