The two Jane Giffords

It was a privilege to be among descendants of Warkworth’s pioneer families recently aboard the scow Jane Gifford, enjoying a nostalgic journey up the Mahurangi River.

It was a day for reflection, bringing to mind our forebears and the ships that brought them to New Zealand. Included in the group were a select few who were descended from the Scottish immigrants who came to Auckland in the sailing ships Jane Gifford and Duchess of Argyle.

Robert Graham, a passenger on the Jane Gifford, kept a diary and entries detail their progress down the coast from the Bay of Islands and their eventual arrival at their destination. The pilot boat was their first contact and they received the news they had anxiously awaited. The Duchess of Argyle had been ahead of them but was stuck on a sand bank and so the two ships arrived in Auckland harbour together on Sunday October 8, 1842.

Rain and strong winds caused some delay unloading and there were several young men waiting to view the single women as they disembarked. Such was the matrimonial market at the time that girls sometimes became engaged between landing on the beach at Soldier’s Point and arriving at Mechanics Bay where immigrant accommodation was available in raupo huts.

Promised a land of milk and honey, the settlers found the bee was not much in evidence but the mosquito was very busy.

Robert Graham described Auckland as lying in a hollow with houses built close to the beach. Every fourth shop was a grog shop and the streets were very muddy. A road led to Manukau and four miles along this road he found some cultivation of wheat and barley. There were cows wearing bells around their necks to indicate their whereabouts in the fern, which was everywhere.

It was 20 years before these settlers came together again for a reunion, with those from the Jane Gifford wearing blue rosettes and their friends from the Duchess of Argyle wearing red. Celebrations were held to mark 25 years, 40 years, and a grand jubilee in 1892 to mark 50 years of settlement in the colony.

A number of the families have links with the Rodney area. Robert Graham opened the first hotel and health resort at Waiwera in 1845. There were Jamiesons on both ships but it was Govan who came on the Duchess of Argyle, married Mary Cooper from the Jane Gifford and settled on the Mahurangi River. Their son George was later to captain scows, including the Jane Gifford.

The Moores, Morrisons, and Wilsons were all families who made their mark in Warkworth’s history. Peter MacDonald was the schoolteacher with a long association with Kawau Island. The McBriertys settled at Mahurangi Heads, as did the Darrochs before moving their shipbuilding operation to Omaha.

It was at the Darroch shipyard at Omaha that the scow Jane Gifford was launched in 1908.