Captain and Mrs John Paton (née Ann Scott)

Captain John Paton and his wife were well-known residents of Port Chalmers. John was considered one of the most reliable and respected pilots in Otago Harbour.  Both John and Ann were born in Scotland in 1825, and they married on 11 January 1850 at Monife in Forfarshire.

John went to sea at an early age working on ships in the Baltic trade where he rose to the position of master of the Ossian.  In 1852 he left Dundee for Cape Town and Melbourne as master of the Thomas Worthington.  Once in Melbourne, he left that ship to take command of the Dunedin-owned trading vessel Clutha. Ann, who had followed John to Melbourne in 1855, travelled on the Gil Blas in 1856 to Port Chalmers where they settled and brought up a large family.

John subsequently became the captain of the Thomas and Henry and in this position he brought the first cargo of sugar from Mauritius to Dunedin.  After trading to and from New Zealand for several years, he joined the Otago Harbour pilot service in 1862.  He remained there for 34 years until his resignation in 1896 due to age and failing health.  On retirement Captain Paton lived in Port Chalmers with Ann and their children until his death in 1910, aged 86.  Ann died five years later, aged 92, survived by two sons and three daughters.