An extensive record of the NZ early settler Alexander Bathgate and his family, who arrived at Dunedin’s Port Chalmers on the ship “Pladda” on 7 September 1861, was provided by James Gibson of Richmond, Nelson, in his publication, The Bathgate Story, 1989.
In 2012 Jim completed an updated edition – “The Bathgates from the Scottish Borders”.
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Some information from THE BATHGATE STORY (1989) is included below:
Alexander Bathgate and Janet Brown
The first of our Bathgate forebears to emigrate to New Zealand was Alexander Bathgate, aged 68, who arrived on the ship ‘Pladda’ in Dunedin 7 September 1861 along with six of his children – Agnes (and her daughter Janet aged 4), John, Margaret, Thomas, Alexander and Charles, leaving four other children in Scotland – his stepson Robert, William, Archibald and Jane. Alexander’s son John was the father of George Thomas Bathgate, our Danny.
The passenger list for Pladda mentions Alexander Bathgate and family of 7 – this number includes his granddaughter: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzbound/pladda1861.htm
Alexander Bathgate was born 16 May 1793 in Aberlady, Scotland. His parents were William Bathgate (b. 1756? Occupation: Cabinet Maker) and Jane (or Jean) Armstrong (b 26 November 1757 at Aberlady) who were married 30 October 1785 at Aberlady. Parents of William Bathgate were William Bathgate and Agnes ? Parents of Jane Armstrong were Alexander Armstrong and Marian Still. Some think the Armstrongs were descended from James Fairburn whose name was changed to Armstrong.
Alexander Bathgate married Janet Brown (b 7 July 1803 at Ancrum) on 6 June 1830 at Ancrum, Roxburghshire, Scotland. Janet Brown’s parents were Robert Brown (Occupation: Tailor) and Agnes Renwick, who were married 10 October 1795 at Ancrum.
Janet Brown was first married in 1820s to Robert Thomson, with whom she had her first son Robert, born c1828 at Ancrum. Presumably Robert Snr died not long after this son was born. The record of her marriage to Alexander Bathgate listed her surname as Brown, presumably because women in Scotland did not lose their maiden names completely when they married.
Alexander and Janet lived in a thatched cottage at Ancrum where Alexander was in much demand as a singer at local social events. Census records list his occupation as agricultural labourer, and like other such in those day he probably did not remain in the same job for long because many of them were employed under short term contracts. Alexander and Janet’s two youngest children were born in Bedrule, and by 1854 they had moved to Hardenmains in the parish of Oxnam, Roxburghshire, where Janet died of heart disease 13 February 1855, aged 51. She is recorded as being buried at Ancrum. The children’s names and ages listed on Janet Brown’s entry of record of death were Robert 24, William 22, Agnes 20, Archibald 18, John 16, Jane 14, Margaret 12, Thomas 10, Alex 8, Charles 6.
By the time of the April 1861 census Alexander and the unmarried members of his family had moved to Hassendean, in Minto parish, about 7 miles west of Ancrum. The decision was made to emigrate to Otago, NZ. While some people migrated to the colonies out of a sense of adventure, most were driven abroad by economic necessity. Life had always been tough for most Scots and the coming of industry in the 18th and 19th centuries intensified their difficulties. For example, the year the Bathgates left Scotland, 35% of all families lived, ate and slept in one room no bigger than a small bedroom. New Zealand offered a new life and greater opportunities. They moved to Glasgow to await their departure on the ‘Pladda’ as assisted immigrants. It was a 98 day journey from the Clyde to Port Chalmers, Otago.
The centenary of the Pladda’s arrival was celebrated in Dunedin in September 1961, and one of Alexander’s grandsons, George T Bathgate (our Danny) was chairman of the original centenary committee. Another grandson, Oliver Hastie, spoke at the centenary dinner.
Not much is known of what the family did in their first few years in Otago. In the late 1840s the Rev Dr Thomas Burns (nephew of Scotland’s famous bard Robbie Burns) had visited the Taieri, looking down from Saddle Hill on a vast area of swamps. He recorded in his diary, “They (the swamps) are all capable of draining and a magnificent flat of fine land it will be.” Soon after the first settlers were arriving in the Outram district of West Taieri. As land above flood level became scarce more settlers including Alexander and his sons John, Thomas and Charles ventured into the swamps in the centre of the plain. Alexander, John and Thomas jointly received a crown grant of 137 acres on 26 October 1865. Alexander and John received title to it on 26 September 1871. They called their farm ‘Janefield’ (both the name of Alexander’s mother and of the daughter he had left behind in Scotland). By this time Alexander was 72, helping his sons drain the swamps and break in the land. There were a couple of severe floods in 1868 and 1877.
An Otago Witness column, CHATS WITH THE FARMERS, in its 16 August 1879 issue, describes a visit to Alexander and John Bathgate’s ‘Janefield’ farm: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=OW18790816.2.7.1&srpos=159&e=——-10-OW-151—-0granton—
Alexander lived through those difficult days and died of ‘old age’ 28 September 1881 at ‘Janefield’ West Taieri, aged 88 years, and is buried at West Taieri Cemetery. His death certificate says 7 sons and 2 daughters survived him. No ages were given.
According to THE BATHGATE STORY family tree by Jim Gibson, Alexander and Janet Bathgate’s children were:
Robert Thomson, as above – married Margaret Goodfellow, d ?
William, born c1831 Ancrum – married Sarah Hymers 28 Dec 1854 Denholm, died 19 January 1897 Jedburgh.
Janet, born 4 December 1832 Ancrum – unmarried, d before 1841.
Archibald, born c1833 Ancrum – married Elizabeth Goodfellow, d ?
Agnes, born c1835 Ancrum – married Peter Ramsay 12 May 1862 Dunedin, died 3 Oct 1885, Woodside.
John, born c1837 Ancrum – married Ann Melville Grant 23 Aug 1872 at ‘Granton’ West Taieri, died 18 December 1913 at ‘Gowrie’ West Taieri.
Jane, born c1839 Ancrum – married John Hogg 13 May 1859 Edgerston, d ?
Margaret, born c1842 Ancrum – married James Hastie 1 June 1861 Glasgow, died 10 January 1912 Dunedin.
Thomas, born c1844 – married Cecilia McColl 10 June 1875 Saddle Hill, died 27 July 1923 Dunedin.
Alexander, (born c1845 Bedrule – married Catherine Gibson 27 Feb 1881 Forbes, died 27 September 1928 Forbes
Charles, born c1850 Bedrule – married Maria Anderson 3 Dec 1885 Dunedin, died 8 August 1936 Crookston.
John Bathgate and Ann Melville Grant
Before the family emigrated to NZ, John had worked as a ploughman in Hassendean, Minto parish, Scotland. After his marriage to Ann Grant, they lived at ‘Janefield’ West Taieri, where their 10 children were born:
Alexander, born 2 June 1873 – married Alice May Moffitt on 12 May 1911, died 4 August 1946 Outram. Alexander inherited the ‘Gowrie’ farm.
Peter Melville, born 27 June 1875 – married Barbara Munro Ross (d 15 October 1957) on 3 October 1901 at Edendale, died 27 September 1955 Outram.
Charles, born 13 February1877 – unmarried, died 10 December 1877 West Taieri.
Eliza Jane, born 26 August 1878 – married William Archibald Gardiner on 7 June 1922, West Taieri, died 8 September 1945 Dunedin.
Jessie Brown, born c.1880 – married Robert Frame Thompson (d 5 December 1955) on 12 January 1916 West Taieri, died 21 September 1966 North Taieri.
John Hendry (Jack), born 1883 – married Margaret Ada Hughes (d 2 June 1968) on 7 April 1909 Outram, died 13 October 1962 Dunedin.
William David, born 1885 – married Helena Mary Scott Duncan on 10 July 1918 Edinburgh, died 23 April 1967, Dunedin.
Helen Mary (Nellie), born 4 December 1885 – never married, died 22 December 1934.
James Archibald, born 21 November 1888 – married Dagmar Ivy Kofoed (d 10 January 1967) on 9 April 1913, Dunedin, died 17 September 1959 Outram.
George Thomas, born 26 May 1890 – married Eleanor Isabella McNee on 23 December 1919 Mornington, Dunedin, died 3 June 1971, ‘Kinfalloch’ (part of original ‘Kinfauns’) Outram.
After John’s father Alexander died in 1881, title for ‘Janefield’ passed to John. The Freeholders’ List published in 1882 records John Bathgate, farmer, as owner of 137 acres valued at £2000.
In 1896 John acquired the neighbouring property of ‘Gowrie’ which had originally belonged Peter Grant (no relation to his wife Ann), and the family moved into the large brick homestead there.
In 1915, after John died, 24 acres of ‘Janefield’ fronting Beehive Road were subdivided off and passed to his youngest son George T, which was named ‘Kinfauns’. The rest of ‘Janefield’ (113 acres) passed to John’s second son Peter. ‘Gowrie’ was inherited by John’s eldest son Alexander, and later a 20-acre block fronting Allanton Road was subdivided off for the second-youngest son James. This block is called ‘Grantly’. At the same time both properties were charged with the payment of annuities to John’s daughters while they remained unmarried.
John and Ann Bathgate died within months of each other – he on 18 December 1913 and she on 13 April 1914 – and are both buried at West Taieri Cemetery.
From The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts] – Outram (pp.644-645) http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d5-d50-d5.html
Bathgate, John, Farmer, “Gowrie,” Outram. Mr. Bathgate was born in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in 1844, and brought up to an agricultural life. He came out to New Zealand in 1861, in the ship “Pladda,” and was for two years engaged with the late Mr. Stevenson, of Wingatui. When the gold diggings broke out, Mr. Bathgate joined in the Dunstan rush, but subsequently bought some land at West Taieri, where he remained till 1896, when he removed to his present property. The farm consists of 522 acres of freehold land, and Mr. Bathgate keeps about 600 Border Leicester crossbred breeding ewes, and thirty Shorthorn cows for dairying purposes; and he also carries on mixed farming. About 250 acres are sown annually with wheat, oats and green crops. The wheat averages fifty bushels, and the oats sixty bushels to the acre. Mr. Bathgate has taken a very active part in public affairs in the Taieri, and was for a time a member of the Outram school committee. He is also a member of the Taieri and Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Societies. Mr. Bathgate was married on the 21st of August, 1872, to a daughter of Mr. Peter Grant, of “Granton,” West Taieri, and has a family of six sons and three daughters.
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