With thanks to NZSI, Survey Quarterly, Sept 2005, for permission to reproduce this map.
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Area of James McKerrow's Survey Expeditions - Otago 1861-63
With thanks to NZSI, Survey Quarterly, Sept 2005, for permission to reproduce this map.
James McKerrow - photo taken during his last years
Photo courtesy of Early Settler's Museum, Dunedin, NZ.
Friday, 20 July 2007
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Photo of James Mckerrow
Surveyor, explorer, administrator
James McKerrow was a man of wide and yet at the same time narrow interests; wide in that anything pertaining to learning, culture, religion, patriotism, and his fellow man and their lives came into his scheme of things; narrow in that the general and conventional frivolities and amusements of the day were of the very slenderest interest to him. Drinking he regarded as reprehensible, smoking as unnecessary, and sports as relatively uninteresting. His time was too fully occupied in the vital and essential elements of life to allow participation in any such extraneous activities. Not that McKerrow could be accused of pursuing a life of unwearied toil unrelieved by amusement or enjoyment. On the contrary he lived happily but his happiness depended not on conventional entertainments, but on his work, his books, his religion, his love of nature and through intercourse with his friends and family..
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
The McKerrow family tree
The McKerrow Family tree
The McKerrow’s can trace our family tree back to 1500 when the first McKerrow was born.. The great Grandfather of the man who fathered the first was well known, possibly famous or infamous, and was born around 1404 -1425. Although they have strong connections with Kyle, the first McKerrow’s may not have lived there. .
The Sasine (land deed of 1608) in which James McCerow and his wife Margaret Grier ( a hertiable Proprietrix) involved their married daughter, puts John’s birth not later than 1560.
Well known Scottish historian on the McKerrow family, Alexander Kennedy McKerrow of Endinburgh makes an interesting assertion in his book ‘Your Folk and Mine’ Story of the McKerrows. (1990)
“ From this point on, our search for the McKerrow progentitor has to be a supposition. The rigidly trained historian may perfer to ignore matters based on ascertainable data, but we are not fortunate enough to have all the data, nor are we bound by convention. The possibility of being wrong is the price to be paid for pushing on, and, so doing, we shan’t “miss the fun”, indeed we may very well get close to the truth.”.
He goes on talk about James V who was keen in getting about his Kingdom informally and other stories are told of happening during these trips. He was nearly as active as the early Plantagenes Kings of England and Normandy who were said to live on horse back and from whose entourage Jame’s ancestor Walter Fitzalan had come.. A mobile life suited his womanising custom, and if the truth were known, his natural descendents may comprise the largest clan in Scotland. A good deal of name-changing went on, and apart from a few Stewarts, McKerrows are possibly the only branch in which descent shows the name.
This theory leaves unanswered the question, which of the large number of unrecorded amours of James V led to the birth of the first McKerrow. ? This question is likely to remain unanswered; even though the theory postulates an educated young woman, such persons were few near “our” part of Scotland at that time.
To meet the requirement that the first McKerrow was the son of a man who was at least fairly well known, and whose great grandfather was well known, there are few, if any, better candidates than King James the V and I of Scotland respectively. Their positions were similar: James V (born 1512, the year of Flodden), after his escape from close Douglas guardianship set about reducing the power of the nobles in the interests of national stability, just as James I had to restore order in an unruly Kingdom where turbulence and lawlessness held sway.
Indeed James V himself was well aware of his familiy’s history. Referring to the crown coming to the House of Stewart via Marjory Bruce, amd in dispair at having only a newly born daughetr of uncertain life-expectancy as his direct successor, he exclaimed on his deathbed;
“Adieu, farewell, it came with a lass,
It will go with a lass”.
An incorrect forecast, for his daughter Mary who became Queen of Scots, married her relation Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley and their child became James VI. Like James I, James V had some claim to be a poet, though of less merit. James V must have been keenly aware that he was MacIEROE to James I, the reforming King, just as James I was MacIeroe to Robert the Bruce who completed the fight for Scotland’s independence begun by Wallace.
It would not be surprising if a natural son of James V, the king who had been bought up with great indelicacy by his Douglas keepers, should be named MacIeroe by a knowledgeable Mother, not herself sufficiently highly placed for her son to be acknowledged by a gift of rank, as were six of Jame’s other sons. And James certainly visited Kyle
There is a now obselete Scots word “ieroe”, also spelt airoe, jeroy etc., meaning great-grandson. This word comes from Daelic: iar (after)
Ogha (grandchild) In Gaelic the letter h practically silences the letter before it, in this case g. This word was used by both Sir Walter Scott (in The Lady of the Lake) and by Robert Burns (“ A Deidication to Gavin Hamilton”).. From the latter:
“.....till his wee, ourlie John’s ieroe
When ebbing life nae mair shall flow
The last sad mournful rites bestow."
A name McIeroe in which the hard c of Mc would naturally be dominent, has, become McCeroe, McCerrow and eventually McKerrow, the said hard c becoming anglicised to k, as in MacKenzie, there being no letter in the Gaelic alphabet. Properly pronounced, McKerrow sounds like McAiroe, the Air syllable being somewhat emphasis by its being very slightly drawn out..
Based on research by Sandy (Alexander) McKerrow
The McKerrow’s can trace our family tree back to 1500 when the first McKerrow was born.. The great Grandfather of the man who fathered the first was well known, possibly famous or infamous, and was born around 1404 -1425. Although they have strong connections with Kyle, the first McKerrow’s may not have lived there. .
The Sasine (land deed of 1608) in which James McCerow and his wife Margaret Grier ( a hertiable Proprietrix) involved their married daughter, puts John’s birth not later than 1560.
Well known Scottish historian on the McKerrow family, Alexander Kennedy McKerrow of Endinburgh makes an interesting assertion in his book ‘Your Folk and Mine’ Story of the McKerrows. (1990)
“ From this point on, our search for the McKerrow progentitor has to be a supposition. The rigidly trained historian may perfer to ignore matters based on ascertainable data, but we are not fortunate enough to have all the data, nor are we bound by convention. The possibility of being wrong is the price to be paid for pushing on, and, so doing, we shan’t “miss the fun”, indeed we may very well get close to the truth.”.
He goes on talk about James V who was keen in getting about his Kingdom informally and other stories are told of happening during these trips. He was nearly as active as the early Plantagenes Kings of England and Normandy who were said to live on horse back and from whose entourage Jame’s ancestor Walter Fitzalan had come.. A mobile life suited his womanising custom, and if the truth were known, his natural descendents may comprise the largest clan in Scotland. A good deal of name-changing went on, and apart from a few Stewarts, McKerrows are possibly the only branch in which descent shows the name.
This theory leaves unanswered the question, which of the large number of unrecorded amours of James V led to the birth of the first McKerrow. ? This question is likely to remain unanswered; even though the theory postulates an educated young woman, such persons were few near “our” part of Scotland at that time.
To meet the requirement that the first McKerrow was the son of a man who was at least fairly well known, and whose great grandfather was well known, there are few, if any, better candidates than King James the V and I of Scotland respectively. Their positions were similar: James V (born 1512, the year of Flodden), after his escape from close Douglas guardianship set about reducing the power of the nobles in the interests of national stability, just as James I had to restore order in an unruly Kingdom where turbulence and lawlessness held sway.
Indeed James V himself was well aware of his familiy’s history. Referring to the crown coming to the House of Stewart via Marjory Bruce, amd in dispair at having only a newly born daughetr of uncertain life-expectancy as his direct successor, he exclaimed on his deathbed;
“Adieu, farewell, it came with a lass,
It will go with a lass”.
An incorrect forecast, for his daughter Mary who became Queen of Scots, married her relation Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley and their child became James VI. Like James I, James V had some claim to be a poet, though of less merit. James V must have been keenly aware that he was MacIEROE to James I, the reforming King, just as James I was MacIeroe to Robert the Bruce who completed the fight for Scotland’s independence begun by Wallace.
It would not be surprising if a natural son of James V, the king who had been bought up with great indelicacy by his Douglas keepers, should be named MacIeroe by a knowledgeable Mother, not herself sufficiently highly placed for her son to be acknowledged by a gift of rank, as were six of Jame’s other sons. And James certainly visited Kyle
There is a now obselete Scots word “ieroe”, also spelt airoe, jeroy etc., meaning great-grandson. This word comes from Daelic: iar (after)
Ogha (grandchild) In Gaelic the letter h practically silences the letter before it, in this case g. This word was used by both Sir Walter Scott (in The Lady of the Lake) and by Robert Burns (“ A Deidication to Gavin Hamilton”).. From the latter:
“.....till his wee, ourlie John’s ieroe
When ebbing life nae mair shall flow
The last sad mournful rites bestow."
A name McIeroe in which the hard c of Mc would naturally be dominent, has, become McCeroe, McCerrow and eventually McKerrow, the said hard c becoming anglicised to k, as in MacKenzie, there being no letter in the Gaelic alphabet. Properly pronounced, McKerrow sounds like McAiroe, the Air syllable being somewhat emphasis by its being very slightly drawn out..
Based on research by Sandy (Alexander) McKerrow
James McKerrow - Surveyor, Explorer,Administrator
Surveyor, explorer, administrator
by David Oswald William Hall, M.A., Director, Adult Education, University of Otago (retired).
James McKerrow was a man of wide and yet at the same time narrow interests; wide in that anything pertaining to learning, culture, religion, patriotism, and his fellow man and their lives came into his scheme of things; narrow in that the general and conventional frivolities and amusements of the day were of the very slenderest interest to him. Drinking he regarded as reprehensible, smoking as unnecessary, and sports as relatively uninteresting. His time was too fully occupied in the vital and essential elements of life to allow participation in any such extraneous activities. Not that McKerrow could be accused of pursuing a life of unwearied toil unrelieved by amusement or enjoyment. On the contrary he lived happily but his happiness depended not on conventional entertainments, but on his work, his books, his religion, his love of nature and through intercourse with his friends and family..
He arrived in New Zealand in November 1859 to take up an appointment with the survey department of the Otago Province. McKerrow worked with J. T. Thomson in the triangulation of Otago and Southland, helping to make the Otago system of surveying, based on the practice of the survey of India, the best in New Zealand and later its model.
One of McKerrow's main tasks was the exploration and mapping of the Otago lakes district, where sheep farmers had already penetrated, between 1861 and 1864. He began with a journey through from Wanaka down into Southland. Then he explored the two northern lakes, Wanaka and Hawea, reached over the Lindis Pass, and his excellent account in the Otago Provincial Gazette comments shrewdly on the possibilities and the drawbacks of this inland region with its pastoral as well as goldmining potentialities. It could be reached by bullock dray only by the Lindis Pass, and the unfordable Clutha made southern access difficult. McKerrow explored the Matukituki, Motatapu, Makarora, and many subsidiary river systems. He noted especially the great seasonal fluctuations in volume of the glacier-fed mountain rivers. Later McKerrow travelled through the southern portion of the lakes district, exploring Wakatipu, Te Anau, and Manapouri, with the rivers feeding the lakes from the Kawarau south to the Waiau. He left the exploration of country beyond Lake Hauroko to be completed from Preservation Inlet. Again his report was shrewd and realistic: even if passes existed to the West Coast, the routes would be so menaced by flooding rivers as to be of doubtful value.
The physical difficulties of these journeys, in which over 500 square miles of country were explored, can hardly be exaggerated, even though the existence of a few scattered sheep stations provided a certain amount of support. Lakes Wanaka and Hawea were surveyed from a whaleboat. A much smaller craft had to be used in similar waterborne surveys of Manapouri and Te Anau, where storms made the enterprise especially dangerous. In January 1864 McKerrow and his companion landed at the head of the western-lying Middle Fiord of Te Anau and made their only deliberate attempt to reach the West Coast. Although after some days of struggle in this very difficult region they stopped short of their objective, they did reach a mountain top from which they could see Caswell Sound in the distance.
In 1863 McKerrow was appointed Geodesical Surveyor and Inspector of Surveys in Otago. His work was of a high standard; his younger colleague, J. H. Baker, who accompanied him on his visit to Bluff Hill to take bearings on prominent distant features, attested his debt to McKerrow: “This work and my conversations with Mr McKerrow were of great use to me, as they gave me an insight into the higher branch of my profession which I had not had before”.
In 1873 McKerrow was appointed Chief Surveyor of Otago. In 1877, after the abolition of the provinces and the absorption of their servants into the General Government's civil service, McKerrow became Assistant Surveyor-General. Two years later he was appointed Surveyor-General and Secretary of Lands and Mines. In 1882 McKerrow observed the transit of Venus from the Wellington Observatory, and in 1885 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
As a competent administrator, McKerrow had much to do with work with other Government Departments. He was appointed Chief Commissioner of Railways in 1889 and on the dissolution of the Railways Commission in 1895 he became chairman of the Land Purchase Board. He retired from the Public Service on 31 December 1901. In 1905 he was appointed chairman of the Land Commission. He died on 30 June 1919.
A casual acquaintance, C. S. Ross, reported McKerrow's genial nature and that “his wide and comprehensive knowledge of New Zealand made him a most attractive and interesting companion”. McKerrow was typical of the lad “of pairts” who came out from Scotland with a good education and undertook skilled tasks with “painstaking enthusiasm and tireless accuracy”. In addition to his meticulous survey field work, McKerrow discharged with distinction the tasks of a higher public servant at a time when administration needed resource and invention as well as energy and method.
• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Exploration of New Zealand, McClymont, W. G. (1959)
• Early Otago and Some of its Notable Men, Ross, C. S. (1907)
• A Surveyor in New Zealand, Baker, J. H.
James McKerrow - New Zealand Surveyor
James McKerrow was born on 7 July 1834 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, with a genealogy that can be traced back to King James the Vth. [1]
His Father, Andrew McKerrow was a famous ploughmaker of Beansburn, Kilmarnock, who manufactured patent single furrow, ploughs and back delivery reaping machines which gave him the means to provide his sons an adequate education. James was a bright young student and frequently was top of his class and had a great love of mathematics, and after a good grounding in both pure and mixed aspects of the subjects under Mr. Thomas Lee of Kilmarnock Academy, he studied these subjects further at Glasgow University. Like all his brothers, James did an apprenticeship in implement making as his father believed that having a trade ‘prove a safe standby in times of need, and would often open the door to numerous other occupations.’[2] During his apprenticeship, James showed more interest in surveying the paddocks in the neighbourhood and gaining knowledge of surveying.
James was the eldest of ten children, nine brothers and one sister. When James was five, his sister Jean was born but she died before the age of one. His brother John, born when he was three, died at the age of 21, the year before James left for New Zealand. He was the first to leave for New Zealand, and later, 6 of his brothers emigrated
James McKerrow married Martha Dunlop at Fenwick, Ayreshire Scotland, on 5 August, 1859. Three weeks after their marriage, James and Martha traveled to Glasgow to board the Cheviot, a ship with a reputation for speed, weighing 1066 tons.
Unfortunately the Ship’s departure was delayed some hours so James and Martha, decided to fill the time in by having their last walk on Scottish soil. As they were strolling through the countryside, they passed a field of turnips, and feeling the pangs of hunger, James climbed over the fence, and plucked a turnip. As he was climbing back over the wall, a farmer appeared and threatened to get the police and take charges against him. James quickly produced a sum of money and paid an exorbitant price for a miserable turnip, and they quickly scurried back to the ship, before any other misfortune came their way.[3]
The cargo vessel ‘Cheviot’ set sail on Tuesday the, 23 August and left ‘The Tail of the Bank’ at Greenock and with it Scotland. The ship was heavily laden with foodstuff, spirituous liquors, iron goods, building materials, farm implements, stud sheep, pigs and cattle.[4] Being a cargo ship, it was only able to accommodate twenty-four cabin and eighteen steerage passengers. The majority of the steerage passengers were emigrating under the sponsorship of a Mr. Holmes, who had made large purchases of land in the Lumsden district where he intended to settle them on his holdings. The McKerrows were in the steerage cabins together with sixteen men and one woman.
The Cheviot rounded Ireland and then reached Madeira on 3 September, passed close to Cape Verde on 7 September, and after confusing winds, crossed the equator on 26 September For the next leg of the journey, the weather was good and they rounded Cape Horn on 25 October and a point, south of Adelaide reached on 18 November.
The trip had been eventful with the discovery of a ‘stowaway, the death of a still born baby, the provisioning of a life boat from a foundered vessel and condition were tough at times with cramped quarters, snow and thunder storms, gales force winds and ripped sails, and near misses from flying blocks. The dairy of one of the passengers, Mr. T.L. Barnhill, on 3 October 1859 shows the spirit on board. “ shipped a sea which ducked almost all the steerage passengers who were standing together- all in good spirits owing to our making such progress.” [5]
James and Martha got their first look at New Zealand a week later when they sighted Stewart Island and the next day after ninety five days at sea, they entered the Otago Harbour.
‘ I was very much struck with the beautiful situation of Dunedin and with the clean, neat appearances of the houses looking out spick and span from picturesque spots in the surrounding bush. In coming up the bay and through the islets of Port Chalmers, I was strongly reminded of beautiful Loch Lomond.[6]
.
In 1859 James amd Martha McKerrow (to be finished)
James McKerrow was 85 when he died in 1919 at his Ghuznee Street home in Wellington.
[1] Andrew Kennedy McKerrow, Your Folk and Mine – The story of the McKerrows, private circulation, Edinburgh, 1990
[2]
[3] David G.Herron, James McKerrow –SURVEYOR, EXPLORER AND CIVIL SERVANT- With special reference to Exploration, 1861-3, Presented for History Honours, University of New Zealand.1948
[4] Otago Witness, 3 December, 1859
[5] Barnhill, T.L., MSS Dairy of Voyage of Cheviot. Read by D.C. Herron, 1947.
[6] Mckerrow, J., Reminiscences, p.10 MSS
His Father, Andrew McKerrow was a famous ploughmaker of Beansburn, Kilmarnock, who manufactured patent single furrow, ploughs and back delivery reaping machines which gave him the means to provide his sons an adequate education. James was a bright young student and frequently was top of his class and had a great love of mathematics, and after a good grounding in both pure and mixed aspects of the subjects under Mr. Thomas Lee of Kilmarnock Academy, he studied these subjects further at Glasgow University. Like all his brothers, James did an apprenticeship in implement making as his father believed that having a trade ‘prove a safe standby in times of need, and would often open the door to numerous other occupations.’[2] During his apprenticeship, James showed more interest in surveying the paddocks in the neighbourhood and gaining knowledge of surveying.
James was the eldest of ten children, nine brothers and one sister. When James was five, his sister Jean was born but she died before the age of one. His brother John, born when he was three, died at the age of 21, the year before James left for New Zealand. He was the first to leave for New Zealand, and later, 6 of his brothers emigrated
James McKerrow married Martha Dunlop at Fenwick, Ayreshire Scotland, on 5 August, 1859. Three weeks after their marriage, James and Martha traveled to Glasgow to board the Cheviot, a ship with a reputation for speed, weighing 1066 tons.
Unfortunately the Ship’s departure was delayed some hours so James and Martha, decided to fill the time in by having their last walk on Scottish soil. As they were strolling through the countryside, they passed a field of turnips, and feeling the pangs of hunger, James climbed over the fence, and plucked a turnip. As he was climbing back over the wall, a farmer appeared and threatened to get the police and take charges against him. James quickly produced a sum of money and paid an exorbitant price for a miserable turnip, and they quickly scurried back to the ship, before any other misfortune came their way.[3]
The cargo vessel ‘Cheviot’ set sail on Tuesday the, 23 August and left ‘The Tail of the Bank’ at Greenock and with it Scotland. The ship was heavily laden with foodstuff, spirituous liquors, iron goods, building materials, farm implements, stud sheep, pigs and cattle.[4] Being a cargo ship, it was only able to accommodate twenty-four cabin and eighteen steerage passengers. The majority of the steerage passengers were emigrating under the sponsorship of a Mr. Holmes, who had made large purchases of land in the Lumsden district where he intended to settle them on his holdings. The McKerrows were in the steerage cabins together with sixteen men and one woman.
The Cheviot rounded Ireland and then reached Madeira on 3 September, passed close to Cape Verde on 7 September, and after confusing winds, crossed the equator on 26 September For the next leg of the journey, the weather was good and they rounded Cape Horn on 25 October and a point, south of Adelaide reached on 18 November.
The trip had been eventful with the discovery of a ‘stowaway, the death of a still born baby, the provisioning of a life boat from a foundered vessel and condition were tough at times with cramped quarters, snow and thunder storms, gales force winds and ripped sails, and near misses from flying blocks. The dairy of one of the passengers, Mr. T.L. Barnhill, on 3 October 1859 shows the spirit on board. “ shipped a sea which ducked almost all the steerage passengers who were standing together- all in good spirits owing to our making such progress.” [5]
James and Martha got their first look at New Zealand a week later when they sighted Stewart Island and the next day after ninety five days at sea, they entered the Otago Harbour.
‘ I was very much struck with the beautiful situation of Dunedin and with the clean, neat appearances of the houses looking out spick and span from picturesque spots in the surrounding bush. In coming up the bay and through the islets of Port Chalmers, I was strongly reminded of beautiful Loch Lomond.[6]
.
In 1859 James amd Martha McKerrow (to be finished)
James McKerrow was 85 when he died in 1919 at his Ghuznee Street home in Wellington.
[1] Andrew Kennedy McKerrow, Your Folk and Mine – The story of the McKerrows, private circulation, Edinburgh, 1990
[2]
[3] David G.Herron, James McKerrow –SURVEYOR, EXPLORER AND CIVIL SERVANT- With special reference to Exploration, 1861-3, Presented for History Honours, University of New Zealand.1948
[4] Otago Witness, 3 December, 1859
[5] Barnhill, T.L., MSS Dairy of Voyage of Cheviot. Read by D.C. Herron, 1947.
[6] Mckerrow, J., Reminiscences, p.10 MSS
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