Mary Anne Strain was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1847. She was the fourth child of Hance and Mary Jane Strain and came to Otago with them on the Cornwall in 1849. On arrival the Strains settled in North East Valley where Hance’s brother had already established his family of six. More Strain children were born in Dunedin so that Mary Anne grew up surrounded by a close-knit extended family. Unfortunately her father died in 1857 as a result of a drunken accident, leaving Mary Anne as the oldest daughter to support her widowed mother. A baby brother was born after Hance’s death, adding to the burden of care. As her sisters grew up and were married off, Mary Anne remained at home; she was never to marry.
Very little is known about Mary Anne’s adult life except that she remained in North East Valley. She did not sign up for the franchise in 1893 when women were first granted the vote in New Zealand but was signed up to exercise this right by 1899. That year she also attended a reunion organised by the Otago Early Settlers Association for passengers and their descendants from the Cornwall voyage, along with her brother James and sister-in-law Elizabeth. Mary Anne Strain died in 1925 aged 77. She is buried in the Southern Cemetery in the same plot as her parents, her two unmarried brothers and a sister who had died of consumption as a teenager.
Miss Mary Anne Strain