Mr and Mrs William Jaffray (née Margaret Hunter)

William Jaffray was known as ‘The Father of the Taieri’.  He and his wife Margaret were pioneers of the district and a couple noted for their kindness and hospitality. William was born on 24 November 1820 and Margaret on 3 January 1829.  They met in Mid-Calder, Scotland, where William was working as a young shepherd. One Sunday William was approached by a stranger, Archibald Anderson, who wanted to buy a sheep dog from him to take to New Zealand. William declined to do business on a Sunday but he asked Anderson to come back on Monday and added ‘I wish it had been me you wanted instead of the dog.’ The next day Archibald Anderson duly returned, this time offering the prospect of a journey that very Saturday for both William and his dog.

Five days did not leave much time for William and Margaret to get married before they left, and the minister of Mid-Calder refused to marry them due to the tight schedule.  However, they took ship nonetheless and once on board the Philip Lang they were finally married by Reverend Thomas Burns. The ceremony at sea on 2 February 1848 was the first marriage to be officially registered in Dunedin.  On arrival in Otago, the young couple moved into a whare at East Taieri, being the first Europeans to settle on the Taieri plain.  They worked for Archibald Anderson for another six years, then bought some land of their own and moved to Saddle Hill. The land was inhospitable, covered in dense bush, but the Jaffrays slowly developed their holding into a beautiful home. It was completed by the 1870s, by which time they had dairy cows, sheep, cattle and crops, and Margaret had a beautiful garden and orchard. They brought up a family of eight girls and five boys at Saddle Hill, a further son having died at age three.

The Jaffrays were enthusiastic Presbyterians and William took an active role in both the church and the community, becoming president of the Taieri Agricultural Society and an office-bearer in the Presbyterian Church. Margaret died on 1 May 1905 and William on 7 March 1916.