Biography

Elizabeth Borthwick (nee Roan )

(1819-1874)

Elizabeth was born in 1819 at St Michael, Coventry, Warwickshire. She was christened on 29 January 1819 in the same place.

Elizabeth’s father Hugh Roan was born in 1780 or 1781 in Mullaghbrack, County Armagh in Ireland. He was a weaver by trade but enlisted as a private in the 6th ( or Carbineers) Regiment of Dragoon Guards on 27 April 1801 aged 20. He was discharged in 1819 when he was 38 due to ill health. Elizabeth’s mother Agnes ( nee Dalzeil) was born in 1788 or 1789 in Kircudbright, Scotland. Elizabeth was the third of the eight children of Hugh and Agnes.

Elizabeth married George Borthwick (born 1821) on 23 December in 1842 in the parish of Troqueer, Kirkudbright. George was the son of George Borthwick and Janet Heughan.(1.) George was a journeyman tailor in Dumfries as his father had been before him.

Elizabeth and George had eleven children born in Dumfries, Govan and Edinburgh. It appears that only four children survived infancy. In the 1861 census, the family lived at 3 Montague St in Edinburgh and in the 1871 census, they lived at 15 High School Yards, Edinburgh.(2). George died of TB on 31 May 1869 and is buried in Edinburgh. Elizabeth’s occupation in the 1873 census is listed as ‘charwoman’.

In 1873, Elizabeth, with her children Ann Mary, Janet Rowan and Robert, left Glasgow on the Wild Deer on 6 December for Port Chalmers. It is known that another daughter, Mary Jane, had come to New Zealand earlier. They arrived on 5 March in 1874. Within four months on 19 June Elizabeth died of TB and was buried in the Northern Cemetery on 22 June 1874. The cemetery record gives her age as 56 but it may have been 55.

Most of this information has been gathered by Robert Matthews of Dunedin and written by Jocelynne Labrum.

1. Janet’s maiden name is given in several forms: Heughan, Heuchan, Heugan, and even Mc Ewen.

2. Both of these buildings are now tenement type blocks of flats.