Agnes Buist

Biography contributed by Julie Buist

Agnes Bell, was a woman of grit: independent, compassionate, not afraid to stand up for what she believed in, with her faith rooted in her upbringing. No picture has been seen, no anecdotal stories heard, but an image has been formed from records found to date, and, that is the Agnes Bell here presented.

Agnes was a pioneer settler in Oamaru, New Zealand back in about 1862 when the settlement was just 4 years old. She arrived carried on the back of a stranger, through the surf from the mail ship that had carried her from Auckland to the most dangerous anchorage on the New Zealand coast. She and her husband of two years, stonemason, David Buist, had arrived in the colony early in 1861, staying put in Freeman’s Bay, Auckland while they awaited the arrival of their first child, son, Charles, born five months after their arrival. There, Agnes had established a home among the degenerates and drunks living on the ‘wrong side of Queen Street’, it was probably all they could afford if they didn’t want to blow the little capital they may have had. The Central Otago gold rush presented opportunities this young couple had travelled to the ends of the earth to seize, so rather than raising her family in a less than desirable environment the Buists headed south, the arrival of their second child followed soon after.

The previous 25 years had prepared Agnes for this moment. Raised in the picturesque but poor parish of Maryculter, Kincardineshire, Scotland, on the edge of the River Dee, with its unforgiving terrain steeped in Templar history, Agnes grew up in a poor family. Daughter of William Bell, (sometimes shoemaker, sometimes crofter, sometimes agricultural labourer) and Isabella Ritchie, she was the seventh of nine children. Like her siblings she was probably working away from home by the time she was ten. 

She had the good fortune to be employed by one of ‘the most lovable personalities in Aberdeenshire’, Reverend John Bower, Vicar of Maryculter Kirk. He ensured she received an education, learning not only to read and write but to recite the catechism and hear daily scripture readings. At the time of her marriage, almost a decade later, she was working at Gilston House in Fife for the Paton family, the only one of her siblings to move so far from home. Brother William had moved about 20 miles, Agnes, closer to 80, in a different county. She had shown initiative and responsibility, working hard in previous employment and progressed from being an assistant housemaid in Maryculter to a table maid in Fife. The head of Gilston House, James Paton was a hardworking, deeply religious man with a close family and a concern that one day the working classes would rise above their status. Mr Paton passed away in May 1860 and perhaps Agnes saw the writing on the wall for her future at Gilston House, when his wife, Margaret, was taken away to England by her daughters.

By this time Agnes was in love with David, and an opportunity was in front of them. October 1860 saw them marry in Agnes’ brother’s house in Aberdeen, and within the month they were on their way to London to board the ship, Zealandia, heading for New Zealand and an unknown future, but one full of hope. 

Agnes’ involvement in running a big house gave her skills and a resilience that made her unafraid of hard work. What she faced in Oamaru in 1862, a town just four years old, with a baby on her hip and another on the way, would have required her to dig deep into her reserves. Her previous life would have looked like a walk in the park by comparison to what she now faced but Agnes was up to the challenge because it would mean a better life for her family. 

Within a few years, Agnes and David brought their own piece of land, giving David the right to vote, to have a voice in their community, to have some influence. What an achievement, what a sense of accomplishment. However, the shine would have been dulled a little for Agnes, she had no legal rights to or over that land, despite that she had worked as hard as David to establish their new life, nor did she have the right to vote. By the end of the 1870s Agnes had her hands full caring for her family of ten children. She and David had survived bankruptcy in 1868 only to face it again in 1880 during New Zealand’s economic struggles. Despite their financial challenges, Agnes had a heart for those even less fortunate. Early in 1881 she had provided food to a four-year-old lad, son of drunkard parents, who was ill cared for. On hearing the news of his death six months later she went immediately to his home discovering him with facial sores and a discoloured back (the child died from a recurrence of pleurisy exacerbated by neglect). This compassionate woman would have been filled with regret, questioning whether she could have perhaps done more for this poor wee chap, the same age as her second youngest child.   

Through all this, Agnes’ situation as a married woman gave her the status of a ‘non-person’, thoroughly dependent on her husband who owned and controlled all they had, including her. This must have been a thorn in the side of this strong minded, independent woman, not an aggravation towards her husband but towards the system in which they lived. 

Finally, legislation was passed in 1884 that would alter her status, married women could now own and control property. Within a year, Agnes was recorded as the owner of section 3, block 78 in Oamaru, a section that had previously been in either her husband’s or son, Charles’ name.  It was only natural, when nine years later, the struggle for women’s suffrage went nationwide that Agnes would be one of those brave enough to stand up for women, for what was right and fair. She signed the petition that would give New Zealand women the right to vote - the first country in the world to do so, a country slightly younger than Agnes herself. Agnes was one of the signatories that believed strongly enough in suffrage to stand up to the dissenters in her community, in her church and maybe even in her own home. That took courage and strong conviction. 

The 19th century closed with Agnes adjusting to a new normal, she had buried her beloved husband just four years prior. Early into the 20th she cared for her 27-year-old son Frank who passed away in 1903, the result of tuberculosis. One never expects to outlive their children. By the time of her death on 13 August 1919 she would have looked back on her life, content that her children had greater opportunity not just as the result of her and David’s decision to leave all they knew behind but in her own act of courage in signing the suffrage petition, which reverberates still. 

Sources

Primary

Births.  (CR) New Zealand.  Freeman’s Bay, Auckland.  29 July 1861.  BUIST, Charles.  EN 5498.  Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand. 

Births.  (CR) New Zealand.  Oamaru.  30 January 1863.  BUIST, Isabella.  EN 93.  Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand. 

Births.  (CR) New Zealand.  Oamaru.  16 October 1873.  BUIST, John.  EN 925.  Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand. 

Births. (OPR) Scotland.  Maryculter.  11 July 1837 [baptism 29 August 1837].  BELL, Agnes.  264/00 0020 015. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 5 February 2015.

Census. (1851) Scotland.  Maryculter.  BELL, Agnes.  264/1/11.  www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 8 May 2018. 

Deaths.  (CR) New Zealand.  Oamaru, Otago.  19 December 1896.  BUIST, David.  EN 86.  Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand. 

Deaths.  (CR) New Zealand.  Oamaru, Otago.  24 February 1903.  BUIST, Frank.  EN 17.  Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand. 

Deaths.  (CR) New Zealand.  Oamaru, Otago.  13 August 1919.  BUIST, Agnes.  EN 95.  Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand.

Death Notice.  (1896) North Otago Times. 21 December.  BUIST, David.  p. 2e.  National Library of New Zealand.  online.  Collection:  Papers Past.  North Otago Times, 1864-1918.  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NOT18961221.2.13  : accessed 23 January 2011.

Marriages.  (CR) Scotland.  146 Haddon Street, Old Machar, Aberdeen.  10 October 1860.  BELL, Agnes and BUIST, David.  168/02 0153.  www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk : accessed 24 November 2012.

Newspaper.  (1866)  New Zealand.  Citizen’s Roll.  Town of Oamaru.  North Otago Times.   14 June.  p.2.  National Library of New Zealand.  online.  Collection:  Papers Past.   North Otago Times 1864-1918.  http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NOT18660614.2.28.1  : accessed 23 January 2011. 

Newspaper.  (1881) New Zealand.  Accidents and Offences.  Otago Witness.  30 April.  p. 24a.  National Library of New Zealand.  online.  Collection:  Papers Past.  Otago Witness, 1851-1920.  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18810430.2.43.  : accessed 15 October 2018.

Passenger List.  (1861). Shipping Intelligence Port of Auckland. Zealandia. BUIST, David and Mrs.  Daily Southern Cross.  15 February. p2f.   National Library of New Zealand.  Papers Past.  Online.  Collection:  Daily Southern Cross, Auckland 1843-1876.  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18610215.2.3  : accessed 26 March 2019.

Petition.  (1893) New Zealand.  Women’s Suffrage.  Mosgiel, Otago.  BUIST, Agnes.  SN 297.  Ministry for Culture & Heritage.  online: New Zealand History.  https://nzhistory.govt.nz/suffragist/agnes-buist : accessed 7 May 2018.

Secondary

Blackwood, William.  (1845) ‘The Rev. John Bower, Minister’.  The New Statistical Account of Scotland:  Forfar, Kincardine.  Vol XI.  Edinburgh:  William Blackwood & Sons.  p.p. 189-195 https://books.google.com.kw/books?id=He81AAAAMAAJ  :  accessed 25 October 2018

Campbell, N and Truttman, Lisa.  (2017) Auckland City Heritage Walks.  Auckland’s Original Shoreline.   Auckland: Auckland City Council.  pp. 3, 9-10.  https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/arts-culture-heritage/heritage-walks-places/Documents/auckland-city-heritage-walks-original-shoreline.pdf   : accessed 5 November 2018.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage.  NZHistory.  New Zealand History.  Oamaru Harbour. Page 2 – Early Days.  https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/oamaru-harbour-early-days  :  accessed 28 March 2019.

Stodart, Robert.  (1889) Memoir of James Wyld of Gilston and his family.  Also of Robert Stodart of Kailzie and Ormiston Hill.  Edinburgh: Scott & Ferguson. https://archive.org/details/memoirofjameswyl00wyld/page/n11  : accessed 19 May 2018.

von Hochstetter, Ferdinand.  (2013) New Zealand:  Its Physical Geography, Geology and Natural History, with Special Reference to the Provinces of Auckland and Nelson.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press. P. 227. https://books.google.com.kw/books?id=MsBuRF1bulsC&pg=PA227  : accessed 5 November 2018. 

Webster, David.  (1819) A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland containing A General Description of That Kingdom with A Particular Account of The counties, parishes, Islands, lakes, Rivers, Mountains, Valleys, Cities, Towns, Villages, Objects of Natural History, Scenery of the Country, Mineralogy, Antiquities.  Edinburgh:  Peter Hill and Company.  [online: Internet Archve 2014].  p. 477. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_7KUHAAAAQAAJ/page/n5  : accessed 19 June 2018

Images

Reverand John BOWER, Minister of Maryculter Kirk 1812-1866. c1860. Unknown. Maryculter Kirk, Maryculter, Kincardine. (photograph with kind permission of Anne Massie, Church Officer, 26 August 2018)

Oamaru Old Cemetery, Oamaru, Otago. BUIST, David, Agnes and Frank. Block 63. Plot 40-41. 22 July 2011 (Julie Buist)

Oamaru Old Cemetery, Oamaru, Otago. BUIST, David, Agnes and Frank. Block 63. Plot 40-41. 22 July 2011 (Julie Buist)