After a rough start, George Young arrives in Matakana

Late October 1853 - George, impatiently paced the deck of the coastal cutter as she slowly crept up the Sandspit estuary. Gazing into the north, he recognized from his map that his land was dead ahead across a shallow river bank.

In August, George and his younger brother Pryce purchased 134 acres of land, Lot 25 at the end of Greens Road in Matakana, for 60 pounds. A bush and scrub-covered outcrop of land, Matakana river the eastern boundary and the Glen Eden river to the west.

His first steps onto his land was a small bay on the Matakana River and within days started to build a hut in which he lived for the rest of his life. The first task was to clear the land and then buy the sheep. For the next 26 years, George lived a quiet life in Matakana, and there is no mention of him in any archives. However, his death was of great interest and featured in several old newspapers and government documents.

On paper, George Young had it all – titled ancestors, education, God-fearing ways, money in the bank, and 134 acres of prime real estate. The question is why was he found dead on the 21st August 1879 in a shack, alone with an empty bottle by his side.

His obituary stated that he was a much-respected settler, farming for 26 years in Matakana. He was well connected and once held a commission in Her Majesty's Service.

During the inquest on George's death, various character witnesses stated that George Young was – a good living man, moral, and his only fault was his love of the drink. His death had been reported by Mrs. Wallace, who had known him for 24 years and had been attending George for several days since her Husband discovered him lying in bed, delirious and talking of death.

Unfortunately, the repeated narrative from the inquest witnesses was that "he was fond of a drink or two" and the Coroner's verdict stated, "the evidence showed that the deceased had given way to habits of intemperance and died from excessive drinking and want of sufficient nourishment".

The question is how and why did this moral man come to die this way – alone and in the grips of alcohol. Let's examine the context.

He was Scottish! Born 1809 in the small village of Ardersier, 10 miles northeast of Inverness in the north of Scotland. A windswept place steeped in Scottish history, lying in the shadow of Fort George, the large imposing 18th-century fortress built by the English to control the Scottish Highlanders in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising of 1745 at Culloden. The Culloden battleground only a few miles to the south.

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George's birthplace - Ardersier, Scotland - just south of Fort George and north of Inverness and those historic battlegrounds of Culloden.

George's parents are tenant farmers at Connage of Mains, just south of Ardersier. George is a descendent of The Campbells of Cawdor, of whom Shakespeare wrote in the "Scottish Play". Cawdor Castle is the family seat located about 5 miles east of George's birthplace. George and his siblings received an above-average education for the time and place; his Grandfather, Reverent Pryse Campbell, saw to this, as he was a graduate of The University and King's College of Aberdeen, a Master Theologian. Early life for George was steeped in religious instruction.

We have no information on his early adult life; however, we can assume he worked and lived on the family farm. The 1841 Scottish census reveals George is 32 years living and working on the family farm. Twelve years later, in 1853 at 44 years, George became part of the "Surge of the Scots" and immigrated to New Zealand with his younger brother Pryse Campbell Young.

The "Surge of the Scots" was a result of the Highland Clearances, potato famine, and Sir George Grey's Land Grant. This surge of arrivals from Scotland began in the 1850s reached its height in the early 1860s. Between 1860 and 1863 more Scots left their homeland for New Zealand than for any other destination. These were the only years, Scots arriving in New Zealand outnumbered the English.

3rd June 1853, we find George and his younger brother Pryse arriving in Auckland on the 222 Ton Brig "Spencer" ex Melbourne. In August they purchased the Matakana farm, deciding that George would work the land and Pryse return to Melbourne to take up the appointment as first Postmaster at the gold mining town of Creswick, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia - a job that he held for 5 years until 1859.

The impact of what happened next to George may add context to his death. First, his castaway experience in Coromandel, then the hard work of clearing the land, followed by the sudden death of his brother in February 1859. (Please read an earlier story of George's experience in Coromandel Matakana Cemetery Stories - George Young)

Pryse was on a visit to George when he suddenly passed away in Auckland – there is no information from which he died, only an obituary. He was 30 years old – George is now alone, thousands of miles from family. A little nip of liquor, to fill the void of grief and loneliness.

My connection to George Young is sketchy to say the least – our family farm lies across the river to his; my father is Scottish; my Grandfather fought in WW1 with the Cameron Highlanders, and their Archive and Museum is currently within the walls of Fort George. Just the fact that 50% of my DNA is Scottish makes George's story close and meaningful. I regularly visit his unmarked grave in the Matakana Cemetery.

Foot Note: It wasn't until 1882 that his family discovered that George had died, and his nephews applied to the New Zealand Government for his assets.

Sources:

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspa.../NZH18790826.2.15

https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do...