Mrs Alexander Duthie (née Jane Martin)

Jane Duthie was an iconic feature of the landscape to the settlers of Tokomairiro, known as ‘Old Mrs Duthie’ to even the oldest inhabitants.  Old Mrs Duthie was born as Jane Martin in County Londonderry, Ireland, on 5 January 1815.  She sailed for New Zealand on the Lady Nugent, arriving in Wellington in 1841.  Jane married Alexander Duthie on 19 September 1842 and together they moved down to Dunedin four years later.  At the time of their arrival, Jane Duthie was only the third or fourth Pakeha woman in Otago.  Alexander worked with Charles Kettle’s first survey party around Dunedin, Koputai, the Taieri, Clutha, and Tokomairiro, preparing the way for the first Scottish settlement party that arrived in 1848.  In 1852 Jane and Alexander moved from Dunedin to Tokomairiro with their two eldest children and built themselves a house from totara. They had four more children there, expanding their family to two daughters and four sons.  After Alexander died in 1863, Jane carried on alone with the upkeep of their farm and the raising of their children - the youngest of whom was just three years old when her husband died.

To the people of Tokomairiro, the well-respected Old Mrs Duthie was seen as robust and invincible, always in good health. Unfortunately, her good health could not last forever and on 26 October 1897, after a year of illness, the 82-year-old Jane Duthie died of heart disease.