Biography contributed by Helen Edwards
Whale Mrs, Taieri Road, Roslyn, Dunedin. Sheet 94. [Transcribed ‘North Dunedin’. Suburb should be Roslyn or Kaikorai]
Janet Rowan Borthwick was born on 26 Sep 1859 at St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, the ninth of eleven children. Her parents were George Borthwick, a tailor, and Elizabeth Roan. Janet’s mother and five of the children made their individual journeys to Dunedin between 1864 and 1878. Janet married William Morgan Whale in September 1878. Morgan, born in 1841, was probably the son of Solomon Whale, a greengrocer, and Hannah Gregory. The family lived in Shouldham Street, Westminster and it was here, in 1864, that he married Emma Veale. A son, William Robert Whale, was born in January 1867 and Emma died in January 1869. Morgan brought the boy to Dunedin, where he purchased land in the subdivision of Broughton, Upper Kaikorai, in May 1876. Janet and Morgan spent much of their married lives here. They had eight children between 1879 and 1892, including a set of twin daughters. Stone’s directory has them in Main West Taieri Road between 1886 and 1902. During that time Morgan ran a tailoring and renovating business from City Road in Roslyn, opposite the Borough Council Chambers. The children attended Kaikorai School between 1887 and 1902. Morgan was a Fire Inspector for the Roslyn Borough between 1880 and 1885. He was also a shareholder in the Dunedin and Kaikorai Tramway Company, which Janet unsuccessfully sued for injuries in the Supreme Court in February 1901. Her thumb injury had prevented her from ‘attending her business’, and one of her daughters had to leave her job at the mill to do housework. As the injury meant she could not use a needle for very long, ‘her business’ was probably working with Morgan in the tailor’s establishment. Morgan died in 1912, aged 71, and Janet on 29 January 1920 aged 60, after spending 40 years in New Zealand. She was living in Melville Street at the time of her death. They are buried together in the Southern Cemetery.
Main sources:
ancestry.com
Births death & marriages online. Dept. of Internal Affairs
Cemeteries search. Dunedin City Council
Kaikorai School Dunedin New Zealand Admission, Progress, Withdrawal Registers, 1879-1920: an alphabetical transcript. Dunedin Branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists, 1995.
OASES. Toitu Otago Settlers’ Museum
Otago Nominal Index. Hocken Collections, University of Otago.
Papers Past. National Library of New Zealand