Agnes McDonald

GEDCOM Note

<p> </p>farmers. She was brought up mainly</p>his dispensarty, thereby gaining a</p>this country. In 1850, she got the</p>Charles CLIFFORD (later Sir Charles) to NZ</p>e areas of land in the Waiarapa and Malborough</p>er she completed her 3 year term with the Cliffords, she</p>st of the CARMONT family had also emigrated to NZ as well, and</p>p;</p>

GEDCOM Note

≤p> ≤/p>≤p>≤p>Shortly before the time of the census their eldest daughter, Agnes, who was brought up by her uncle Dr McCartney in Glasgow, had been engaged as a ladies' companion by a Mr & Mrs Clifford who farmed the huge Flaxbourne estate in Marlborough, New Zealand. She sailed on the Phoebe Dunbar and arrived in Wellington in November 1850.≤/p>≤p>≤p>≤/p>≤/p>≤p>≤p>In 1954, in Wellington, shemarried a fellow Scot, probably from the Isle of Bute, who had gone to New Zealand with his parents around 1818 and had worked on whaling ships and carried on a coastal trade in New Zealand. After they were married they leased 12,000 acres of coastal land and ran cattle and sheep.≤/p>≤p>≤p>≤/p>≤/p>≤p>≤p>Wilst living with her uncle in Glasgow, Agnes gathered a considerable amount of medical knowlege, which she used to help the local Maori population, notably during the influenza epidemics which devastated the region throughout the 1860’s, when she was credited with using iodine as an effective treatment for scrofula. In 1878 Hector McDonald died, and Agnes became postmaster at Horowhenua (1883 – 1894).She died at Opaki, near Masterton, on 28th November 1906 aged 77 years.≤/p>≤p>≤p>≤/p>≤/p>≤p>≤p>As well as bringing up her own family of ten children she also adopted a son of her husband's from a previous marriage to a Maori lady.≤/p>≤/p>≤p>≤p>≤/p>≤/p>≤p>There are several accounts ofthe life of Hector and Agnes available on the Internet. The major source is in a book, written by their son Rod. McDonald, "Te Hakenga; early days in Horowhenua," published in 1920, which is a history of the area in which they resided. For this, and other links, see below.