DPF’s family tree – the Milnes

This is Part 2 of my family tree, covering the Milnes, my mother’s mother’s father’s family.

My great-great-great-grandfather was Alexander Milne, born in 1782 in Cairnie, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. He married Isabel Craigan and they had four children – William, Jane, Alexander and James.

Alexander was a farmer and had a 26 acre farm.

William Scott Milne, my great-great grandfather was born in 1824 and was one of the early settlers to NZ. He sailed on the Lady Nugent departing 22 October 1840 and arrived 21 October 1841 in Wellington. He settled in Taita and married in 1847 a Grace Yule who arrived also in 1841 on the Bengal Merchant.  They had eight children, the youngest being John Scott Milne, my great grand-father. All eight children and 39 grandchildren attended their 60th wedding anniversary in 1908.

William took up a crown grant for land in 1865 and farmed in partnership with Alexander Yule in the Hutt. He took an active part in local affairs, was a member of the Wellington Provincial Council and chairman of the Epuni Licensing Committee. He helped establish Knox Presbyterian Church. He did military service and received the NZ War Medal.

William died in 1913 aged 88. He was a farmer and a carpenter.

My great-grandfather John Scott Milne was born in 1870 in Lower Hutt. In 1893 he married Hannah Auton and they had seven children, the youngest being my grandmother Kathleen Milne. Like his father, he was a farmer in Taita.

He lived until the age of 98 dying in Paraparaumu Beach in 1969. He is the only great-grandparent who was alive when I was born – but I don’t recall him as he died when I was two.