Mrs M. Clephane

Biographical information provided by Briar Barry for the He Tohu exhibition:

Margaret McLean was born in 1828 in Barbados, West Indies. Her Scottish father, William Thomas McLean, was the Lieutenant Governor of Grenada at the time.

Margaret later married Thomas Clephane a well-travelled, Scotsman farmer. Thomas died on 14 September 1898. It is likely that one of Margaret and Thomas’s sons had become estranged from them as five days after Thomas’ death an ad was placed in the Mount Ida Chronical by George Clephane imploring his brother, Thomas Clephane (junior), to make contact in order to 'hear of something to his advantage'. No doubt this something was probably some sort of inheritance bequeathed by his father. 

The couple had six children in New Zealand, four sons and two daughters. Margaret Clephane, who also signed the suffrage petition, was their eldest daughter.