Biography

Thomas Aitchison was born about 1817 at Eddelton, Peebles, Scotland. He was the youngest child of James Aitchison and Isobella Aitchison, née Scott.

Thomas became a shepherd. He married Janet Brown at Peebles in 1841, and their daughter Janet was born in 1843. After the death of his first wife Janet, Thomas married again; his second wife was Elizabeth Lindsay. They were married at Cramond, Midlothian in July 1845, and in November 1850 twin sons, James and Thomas, were born at Ratho, Scotland.

Thomas and Elizabeth and the children Janet and Thomas arrived at Port Adelaide, South Australia on the ship Sultana on 19 August 1851. James had died on board, and his twin brother Thomas died in South Australia soon after the family’s arrival. The elder Thomas continued working as a shepherd, and was on the Queensland border when, in 1853, another son, also named Thomas, was born. By 1855 the family were living on the Pine Hill station owned by Thomas’s nephew David Edgar. Two more daughters were born at Pine Hill station — Elizabeth (1856) and Isobella (1859).

In August 1861 most of the Aitchison family departed Port Melbourne for Dunedin, New Zealand aboard the Omea. Janet remained with David Edgar and his family at Pine Hill, where in 1870 she married James Johnston Davidson. Isobella died in 1864, but later the same year another son, John, was born.

During the Maori Wars Thomas enrolled in the reserves. Later, he is known to have been a shepherd on McGregor’s Hampden Downs estate. He died at Mt Cargill, Dunedin in 1883, survived by his wife Elizabeth, who lived until 1899.