Isobel Hopkinson

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Isabella Grant was born around 1826. She  emigrated to Otago, arriving on the Ajax in January 1849. Two months later, at First Church Dunedin, Isabella married James Henry. They had one child.

Henry disappears from the records after their marriage and he and Isabella seem to have parted company as, in 1854, Isabella had a child with Charles Hopkinson. Another four children followed before they married in 1863. They lived at Moeraki, North of Dunedin, where Charles ran a farm known as the Moeraki Estate.

In 1865 Charles was declared bankrupt and all his stock was sold at auction. Charles moved to Canterbury where two years later he was still having problems with his debts. He later moved to the North Island and does not appear to have returned to his family.

In the 1890s Isabella and two of her daughters, Ellen and Caroline, moved to Dunedin where they lived in Bradshaw St, South Dunedin for a time.

Isabella died at her residence - Mount St, Waikouaiti on 21 February 1909. She is buried in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin with two of her children.

Sources

BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org 
NZ Yesteryears http://www.yesteryears.co.nz
Otago Nominal Index  http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
First Church of Otago https://www.presbyterian.org.nz