Biography

MARGARET HEPBURN

Burial register ID: 8842
Surname: HEPBURN
First name: MARGARET
Middle names:
Gender: Female
Age: 62 Years
Cause of death: Unknown
Burial type:
Date of death: 25-Aug-1901
Date of burial: 27-Aug-1901

Block: 8
Plot: 11
Inscription:

The site includes four plots (10, 11, 15 and 16) in Block 8. There is one large monument, now damaged, with inscriptions on each side (1–4). Also a shield (5), now lying on the ground in several pieces, but perhaps originally attached to a smaller headstone still standing beside the main monument.

(1)

Erected

By his

Sorrowing wife & children

In loving memory of

WILLIAM HEPBURN

Who died 29. Sep. 1887.

Aged 53.

Also

MARGARET HEPBURN

Wife of the above

Who died Aug 24. 1901

Aged 62 years.

And with the morn those angel faces smile

That I have loved long since & lost awhile.

HEPBURN

(2)

Also his son

GEORGE DOUGLAS

Who died at Melbne.

July 1st 1899

Aged 34 years.

Interred at St. Kilda Cemetery

Dearly loved. Deeply mourned

(3)

Also

WALTER JOHN GUTHRIE

Beloved husband of

MARGARET M GUTHRIE

Died 24th July 1918

In his 49th year.

(4)

Also

CHARLES HERBERT GUTHRIE

Beloved husband of

JESSIE H GUTHRIE

Died at Waimate Janry 25th 1913.

Aged 35 years

(5)

In loving memory of

WILLIAM LESLIE HEPBURN

Accidentally killed at

[Port Chalmers?]

27th March 1916

Erected by his work-mates

Bio contributor: Don Hutton

Margaret Hepburn (1839–1901)

According to the Record of Early Settlers compiled at the 1889 Jubilee Industrial Exhibition, Margaret Dunbar Marshall was born on 6 August 1840. However, Old Parish Records have her birth as 6 July in Falkirk, Scotland, and christening as 28 July, both in 1839.

Margaret spent the first nine years of her life in Falkirk. She emigrated from Scotland to Otago with her parents and brothers James and Lewis on the Cornwall in 1849, arriving in Dunedin on 23 September. The family settled at Halfway Bush and resided opposite the home of George and Rachel Hepburn on the corner of today’s Taieri and Helensburgh Roads. Her father James Marshall was a storekeeper at that address.

Margaret was first married to George Ross by Rev. Thomas Burns, and the witnesses were James Smith of Wakari and John M. Williamson of Kaikorai. Ross died in 1860, aged 39. Margaret was only 21 and had two small children.

She married for a second time in 1863 to William Hepburn. The marriage of Margaret and William was celebrated at Margaret’s house, Wakari, by Reverend D.M. Stuart. Witnesses were Andrew Low, Manuherikia, and Jessie Hepburn, Waikari. A Marriage Settlement was involved by which she received a one-quarter share in her own right of a property at the corner of Rattray and George Streets, Dunedin. At one stage the annual rents received from the whole property were £2,000. Therefore her share of £500 per year meant in those days that she was a wealthy woman of independent means. This income was to stand her in good stead after William’s business collapsed, and following his death in 1887.

As she got older Margaret became increasingly hard of hearing. Her father-in-law George Hepburn noted her use of a hearing trumpet in one of his letters.

In 1901 Margaret died of cancer. At the time of her death she had been living at Leven Street, Roslyn. She had resided there since at least 1896 (Wise’s Directory).

The Monumental Inscription on her grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin, reads: “And with the morn those angel faces smile, That I have loved long since and lost a while.”

— Other burials recorded at the same site (Plots 10, 11, 15 and 16 in Block 8 form a single grave):
William HEPBURN d. 1887,
Charles Herbert GUTHRIE d. 1913,
William Leslie HEPBURN d. 1916,
Walter John GUTHRIE d. 1918,
Margaret Marshall GUTHRIE d. 1955,
and Margaret Isobel GUTHRIE d. 1955.

There are 2 Interments in this grave:

Surname First names Age Date of death Date of burial
HEPBURN MARGARET 62 Years 25-Aug-1901 27-Aug-1901
HEPBURN WILLIAM 53 Years 29-Sep-1887 03-Oct-1887