NameJames Hair YOUNG 184
Birth Date26 Dec 1838
Birth PlaceLesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland
MemoFrom Baptism reference
Chr Date6 Jan 1839185 Age: <1
Chr PlaceLesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Death Date26 Feb 1899186,187 Age: 60
Death PlaceOrepuki, Southland, New Zealand
MemoDeath Notice in Southland Times of 28 February - “Young.— At the residence of his father-in-law, Mr J. Aitken, Strathearn, on Sunday, the 28th February, 1899, J. H. Young, of Orepuki, the beloved husband of Harriet Young, aged 54 years. The funeral will leave Wilson's Temperance Hotel, Orepuki, at 1.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 28th February. Friends please accept this the only intimation”.
Burial Dateaft 26 Feb 1899188
Burial PlaceOrepuki, Southland, New Zealand
Alias/AKAJames Hall YOUNG [death], James Hare YOUNG [burial]
In October 1862, James Hair Young said goodbye to his family on the farm at 'Cleughhead' in the parish of Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was never to see his father, his sisters, his stepmother , half-sisters and half-brothers, or his homeland again.
He took passage on the 'Ben Lomond' out of Glasgow, bound for New Zealand, with his good friend Matthew Fallow and Matthew's brother-in-law, John B. McLean. They were three of the thirteen cabin passengers on that voyage.
James received a thorough grounding in good farming practice from his father, but for some reason, in 1862, decided to seek his fortune on the other side of the world, and so it was that he came to be aboard the 'Ben Lomond', bound for New Zealand.
An account of the voyage, taken from the Otago Daily Times 20 January 1863, follows, the vessel having arrived in port the previous day:
"The ship 'Ben Lomond', which arrived at the Heads on Sunday afternoon, was towed up in the morning by the 'Sampson', Preceded by the ship 'Bruce', which had also arrived during the night with a large freight of passengers from Melbourne.
The total number of passengers who shipped by the 'Ben Lomond', was 338, and with one birth having occurred during the passage, the number of arrivals is the same."
With his travelling companions, James headed straight for the Dunstan diggings in search of gold, and for the next eight or nine years he was an energetic and successful digger on the Otago, Picton and West Coast goldfields.
According to his obituary, he came from the West Coast to Southland early in 1870 or 71 via Martin's Bay and Queenstown.
In August 1874 he bought his first farm at Flints Bush. What he did in the intervening three or four years, we do not know. Maybe it was later than 1871 when he finished with gold digging.
It is also possible that he leased the land at Flints Bush for a few years before actually buying it, because this was the pattern he followed later.
In July 1876, he sold this first farm and moved to Heddon Bush - or as it was then called - Oreti Plains, where he leased another farm. He proceeded to plough, fence and improve it, and also build a home there. Having completed the home he married Harriet Lillias Aitken, second daughter of James Aitken of Liddell Street, Invercargill.
By this time, James was a mature man of 40 years and his bride was only 19. Seemingly James thought the age gap was too great, and so he chopped 6 years off his age. He never told his wife what he had done, so that when he died his age was given as 54. This white lie must have caused him some problems at times because his age varies on the children's birth registrations.
After spending most of his lifetime working on the land, first on his father's farm at 'Cleughhead' in Scotland and finally at Waihoaka, apart from a period 1863-1871, when he was gold mining, James Hair Young died on 24 February 1899 and was buried at the Orepuki cemetery leaving his widow Harriet and ten children (seven boys and three girls).
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