‘Mrs Martin was one of the oldest residents in Wellington, and was highly esteemed for her plain unostentatious kindness of disposition’.
Marion Baird was born in Fountainhall, a hamlet southeast of Edinburgh, in 1819. He father (James) died when she was 2 years old. In 1842, her mother died and presumably this was her catalyst to emigrate. Many years later her nephew John Baird and then afterwards her brother William Baird also emigrated to Wellington.
In Wellington, Marion was a domestic servant. On 14th September 1847, she married John Martin. John was born in 1822 in Ireland and he and his ten orphaned brothers and sisters emigrated to New Zealand, arriving in 1841. He set to work with a pick and shovel and worked until he could afford to buy a horse and cart. He was an ‘industrious young fellow, with a shred head and frugal instincts’. In 1861, Gabriel Read found gold on land that John had purchased in Otago. As a result, his wealth increased to £13,000.
As a result, John purchased land and set up as a general commission agent in Manners Street. He built a residence in Ghuznee Street which was named Fountainhall after Marion’s birthplace. Their ten children filled the large house and Marion’s role had changed to be an employer of domestic servants. She was constantly advertising for general female servants, housemaids, cooks, and with so many children, nursemaids.
In 1875, John and Marion went on a tour of Europe and America. The headstone for her parents in Pencaitland Churchyard may have been organised by her during this trip. The dedication inscription bearing her name is slowly fading away. On their return, John set about laying out the town of Martinborough in the form of a Union Jack, with the streets named after the places he and Marion had visited. In Wellington, the family are remembered in the naming of Martin Square and Marion Street, among others.
Marion died on 11th February 1892 and was the first woman to be buried at the newly opened Karori Cemetery. John died just a few months later on 17th May. Their plot is a prominent one fronting the Public section near the Shelter. Two of their daughters are also interred in this plot: Marion Baird Cameron and Jessie Gertrude Tweed.
Plot: *Public/#/4
By Julia Kennedy
