Biography

Mary, the daughter of Andrew and Margaret Glen, was born at Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland in 1829. She married Allan Henderson, a bricklayer, at Bo’ness, West Lothian, on 5th December 1848. By 1855 the couple had four children: Margaret, John, Andrew and Mary. On 16 January 1855 the vessel Ocean Chief (1220 tons) sailed from Liverpool bound for Tasmania with the Henderson family, including the newborn Mary, aboard. They travelled as assisted emigrants under Bounty Ticket No. 158. They landed in Hobart on 25 March 1855. It is not known for certain how long the Hendersons remained in Tasmania, but it is believed they sailed from Launceston for Dunedin in late 1863. Three more children, Ronald, Flora Allan and Janet, were born while the family were in Tasmania. In Dunedin Mary’s last two children, Catherine and Ann, were born, and she lost her youngest son Ronald to scarlet fever at the age of seven years.

Mary’s husband Allan’s trade was bricklaying, but he may also have built houses in Tasmania, and may have worked as a carpenter on the Crown Hotel in Balclutha in 1863. He was a heavy drinker and was apparently sent away to Australia by the two eldest sons, John and Andrew. He died at Williamstown, Melbourne in 1890 at the age of 64.

Mary lived to see her surviving sons established, and all her daughters married at Dunedin between 1869 and 1884. She died at her home in Grange Street, aged 77, on 11 December 1906 and was buried with members of her daughter Margaret’s family in the Northern Cemetery.

Others buried here: Mary’s daughter Margaret Turner, her son-in-law Coll Turner, and her grandchildren Alexander Turner, Flora McKenzie Turner, Coll Turner, Eva Turner and Mary Elizabeth Chalmers.