Mr and Mrs Daniel Haynes (née Margaret Miller)

Daniel Haynes was a notable Dunedin merchant who left his mark on the central city.  He and his wife Margaret were also philanthropists who played a significant role in Dunedin’s Trinity Methodist Church. Daniel was born at Napton, England, in 1832 to a farming family.  He attended the local school until the age of 13, before finding work with a large drapery company in Coventry. His apprenticeship there lasted seven years and required 86 hours of work per week. Daniel then made his way to London, where he gained further business experience and made contacts that would prove invaluable to him later in life.  He emigrated to Auckland on the Lord Ashley in 1857 and took a job with David Graham and Co.  There he became fast friends with two co-workers, George Herbert and Alexander Hay. The three of them moved to Dunedin together to establish the drapery firm Herbert, Haynes, and Hay in 1861.

Margaret Miller meanwhile had been born in Edinburgh on 8 May 1839 and came to Otago on the Pladda in 1862.  She and Daniel were married in Dunedin in 1864 and went on to have two sons and four daughters.  Daniel eventually became the sole proprietor of his firm after Alexander Hay left the company and then George Herbert retired.  The business prospered under his careful guidance, occupying a prominent location on Princes Street, with its various buildings extending over the entire block on the west side from the Octagon to Moray Place.

Both Margaret and Daniel were valued members of the Trinity Methodist Church. Daniel was one of the seven original trustees of the congregation to which he made a number of generous donations. Margaret was also highly respected in the church and performed ceremonial roles at official events. Other than their religious activities, Daniel and Margaret were not active in public affairs, and enjoyed a quiet life, gardening in their spare time. Daniel made six trips back to England, usually for business reasons and to keep in touch with his commercial connections in Britain. On one trip in 1910, however, he took his wife, daughter, and grandson with him to England for nine months. Daniel died in Dunedin in 1921, aged 89. Margaret survived until 1924. Following her death at the age of 85, she bequeathed large donations to a variety of good causes.