John
Brownie (1849 - 18 September 1933, Dunedin) arrived in New
Zealand via Otago on the 10 February 1874 on the ship Atrato. He was
listed as being aged 23 and travelled with three other young men -
they were all carpenters and were all from "Wigtonsh"
(Wigtownshire is one of the southern most counties of Scotland). The
other three men were:
John
Cumming aged 24
Robert
Knowles aged 21
John
Knowles aged 24
In
1876 John married Margaret Christie Forsythe (1859 - 2 August
1934, Wellington). John and Margaret were Alister's Great Great
Grandparents. Together they had a family of nine children over 22
years:
1.
Margaret Brownie (1878 - 1905). Margaret never married and
died aged just 37 years of age.
2.
John Brownie (1880) married Mary Ellen Barry (daughter
of James and Ellen Barry) (1879) in 1905
2.1 Margaret
Ellen Brownie (1906
- 1907). Died aged just sixteen months old.
2.2
John
Brownie (22
August 1907 - 1988)
3.
Richard Brownie (1882 - 1958) married Jessie Cragg (1881
- 1970) in 1910
3.1
Richard
Clement Brownie (13
April 1911 - 2000)
4.
Isabella Brownie (1884 - 12 August 1960, Wellington) married
Matthew Spence (1879 - 27 December 1966, Wellington) in 1903.
Isabella and Matthew were both cremated at the Karori Cemetery,
Wellington
5.
William Lawson Brownie (1886 - 9 January 1907). Died aged 20,
with name William "Cameron" Brownie. William's death
was quite tragic, and followed an unhappy exchange with his father as
reported in the Otago Witness on 23 January 1907:
A
SAD CASE.
DEATH
FROM APPENDICITIS.
An
inquest was held on the 10th inst. at the Hospital by Mr C. C. Graham
(coroner) and a jury of six, of whom Mr T. Scurr was chosen foreman,
concerning the death of William Cameron Brownie, a young man who died
in the institution early on Wednesday morning.
Sergeant
King appeared for the police, and Mr A. C. Hanlon watched the
proceedings on behalf of Mr J.Brownie (senior), the father of
deceased.
Charles
Young, labourer, at the North-East Valley, said that deceased was a
cousin of his, and he identified the body.
Witness
also knew the father of deceased, John Brownie. He saw the two
together on the night of the 2nd inst. on the footpath at the Upper
North-East Valley. A little brother of deceased's, Charles Brownie,
was also there. The boy was crying and the father was trying to
pacify him. Witness went up to Mr Brownie and told him the boy
Charles and a little brother of witness's who was also present, were
in his charge, and that they were all right. Deceased had not at that
time come on the scene, but appeared soon afterwards. When deceased
came up the father said he was going to take the boy Charles to the
police, as he was neglected.
The
Coroner: Mr Brownie is, I understand, separated from his wife, who
has charge of the boy.
Mr
Hanlon: Mr Brownie came up and found the child crying and said he
would take it to the police.
Witness,
continuing, said the time when this occurred would be about half-past
nine. The boy did not want to go with his father, but wanted to go
home to his mother. He started calling out for his brother
(deceased), who came forward to take him by the hand. The father told
deceased to let go, but he did not do so, and Brownie (senior) struck
deceased on the shoulder with his fist. Deceased then struck back,
and. several blows passed between the two. The fight lasted for about
two minutes. Witness told deceased he had better get out of it, as
people were coming down the footpath, and he ran away towards home.
Brownie (senior) went into the middle of the road, picked up some
metal, and ran after deceased. Witness saw no more of the affair.
To
Sergeant King: Brownie struck deceased about the body, but witness
could not say what part it was he struck. Could not say how many
blows he struck. In conversation with deceased three quarters of an
hour after the row, witness asked if Mr Brownie struck him in the
face, and he replied no. He said the only blow he felt was the first
one on his shoulder. There was nothing said about dumbbells.
Mr
Hanlon: Deceased wae in the habit of using dumbbells, and told
witness they were about 65 lbs in weight each. Witness corrected
himself and said it was a bar-bell, and it weighed 65 lbs. Deceased
told him he had had an accident with it on the Sunday, one of the
balls coming off. This did not strike him, but the other ball, being
without balance, came down and gave him a wrench. Deceased was a
strong, active young man, and was more than a match for his father.
He had the better of the row with his father. Noticed afterwards that
the father had his face marked. Would not swear deceased received
more than the one blow on the shoulder.
To
Sergeant King: Both father and son were quite sober.
Dr
Falconer, senior house surgeon at the Hospital, deposed that deceased
was admitted to the Hospital on the evening of the 7th January,
between 6.30 and 7 o'clock. He was complaining of great pain in the
abdomen. He was examined by witness, and was found to be suffering
from general peritonitis, the result of gangrenous appendicitis.
Witness telephoned for Dr Stanley Batchelor, who at once came and
operated on deceased. The abdomen was found to contain several pints
of pus, and the appendix was in a state of gangrene. The case was
practically hopeless from the first, and deceased died at 4 a.m. on
the 9th inst., the cause ofdeath being gangrenous appendicitis. On
admission deceased stated that the pain in the abdomen had come on on
Thursday, January 3, about 2 or 3 p.m., and continued up to the time
he was admitted to the Hospital. He also stated that he was of the
opinion the pain was caused either by a blow he had received on the
left side of the chest and lower ribs between 9 and 10 p.m. the
evening before the 3rd, or that the pain was caused by a wrench he
had received while exercising with a barbell, which had slipped and
given him a wrench. He thought the wrench from the barbell was the
more likely to have caused the trouble. He said it was at 7 p.m. two
hours before the row he had - he received the wrench from the
barbell. Witness would be disinclined to think either the blow or the
strain was the actual cause of what deceased was suffering from. He
would not be prepared to say either was the actual or exact cause of
the appendicitis seeing how often it occurred without any apparent
originating cause. In any case, the strain would be the more likely
cause of the trouble. Four cases of appendicitis had come into the
Hospital in three days, one being that of young Brownie, and there
was no history in connection with any of them.
The
Coroner said he did not think it was necessary to call a further
witness mentioned by Sergeant King. The cause of death was no doubt
acute appendicitis, and the only question for the jury to consider
was how it originated, and whether it was caused by the blow received
in the row with deceased's father or by the wrench deceased had got
while exercising with the barbell, or arose from some extraneous
cause. He did not think there was evidence sufficiently reliable to
show that the blow caused the trouble, and he thought the only
conclusion the jury could oome to was that the cause of death was
appendicitis, but that the evidence was not sufficient to show what
the exact cause of the appendicitis was. The jury returned a verdict
that deceased died of acute appendicitis, but there was not
sufficient evidence to show, the origin or cause of the same.
6.
Alexander Wright Brownie (1889 - 25 July 1892). Died aged
just three years.
7.
James Christie Brownie
(1894 - 16 June 1941)
married Violet Ann Kitto
in 1915 (1 February 1897
- 6 February 1991) Both James and Violet are buried at the Aramoho
Cemetery in Wanganui. These were Alister's Great Grandparents.
8.
Clement Christie Brownie (1896 - 1966) married Gladys Mary
Lesley (12 November 1899 - 1998) in 1927. Clement served in WWI.
9.
Charles Alexander Brownie (1900 - 1961) married Mary Muir
Aitchison in 1927
Following
John's death, Margaret seems to have moved to Wellington to live with
her daughter Isabella (Mrs M Spence) whose husband obviously worked
for the Defence Department in Trentham. Margaret seems to have been
cremated at the Karori Cemetery, Wellington, and then these interred
with her husband John at the Northern Cemetery in Dunedin. John's
address at the time of his death was Melbourne Street, Dunedin and
his occupation was listed as "builder."
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