Biography

Margaret Isabella Gregory (nee Warnock) was one of fourteen or fifteen children of John Warnock and Jane (nee Totten). The family lived as farmers , growing linen flax near the Northern Ireland village of Armagh-breague, but the ancestors originally came from Ayr, Scotland, where they ere stonemasons.

Margaret left Ireland for Australia in about 1860. She brought in her care some children of a couple who had already emigrated. She believed she would be their governess, but found herself expected to work as a servant in the couple’s hotel.

She met Joseph Gregory in Melbourne and they followed the other couple to Dunedin, where they were married at the Gregory home in Hanover Street, on 25 May 1864. Joseph had been lured to NZ by the Otago goldfields, and Margaret followed him in order to marry.

Margaret’s sister, Martha, came to NZ to help her with her children and later married Thomas U’ren.

When Joseph was unable to work because of illness about 1869 Margaret commenced a business as a general storekeeper in Elm Row. She carried on with this for some years.

The Gregory family consisted of seven children (two sons and five daughters) Two of the children Emma Victoria and Aileen May Florence are buried in the Northern Cemetery site.

Ref: Gregory’s – Camerons Printers to Dunedin. Compiled by Nevill Wilson and Edgar Gregory fom notes and material assembled by Elizabeth Gregory.

The Gregory’s Shop
Source: Edgar Gregory