Margaret (Diamond) Scott (1860 - 1918)

Ancestors Descendants

MARGARET DIAMOND 1860 - 1918

Margaret Diamond was born in Sydney 22nd December 1860, the first child born to William and Johanna Diamond. Margaret arrived in Nelson, New Zealand with her parents and half brother David Brown when she was a year old. They moved to Golden Bay when she was about eight.

Margaret Scott

For girls growing up in Golden Bay there was “practically nothing in the way of employment. Their lot invariably would be to help in the home and on the small farms until such time as they married and began a similar existence on their own account.” Margaret was eighteen years old when she married Walter Scott whose Scottish parents, David and Grace Scott had settled in Motupipi. Walter was employed at a timber mill near Collingwood and worked as a carpenter building the roomy “story and a half” houses popular in Golden Bay. The Nelson Colonist reported their marriage “On the 23rd May 1879 at the residence of the bride’s father by the Rev.Whyte, Walter second son of David Scott Mt.Pleasant Clifton to Margaret eldest daughter of William Diamond of Aorere West Bank.” Witnesses to their marriage were Margaret’s brother David Brown and Aunt Lizzie (her mother’s sister from Nelson, Elizabeth Salmond). ^[1]

Margaret and Walter stayed in Golden Bay, living in Takaka where Walter had work and their first child Josie was born. Later, they moved to Rockville and then to Kaituna. The Kaituna School Roll shows the family leaving Kaituna in 1893 to return to Rockville. Margaret and children stayed in Rockville while Walter went to the gold fields. This period in the children’s lives was remembered vividly by Josie who told her own grandchildren stories about trapping fat pigeons and long searches for calves in the bush. The 1899 Electoral Roll shows them living in Collingwood shortly before they moved to Eltham.

Margaret Scott

Margaret and Walter with David, Victor, Elsie and Martin had moved to Hamilton where Walter and the “Scott boys” became well-known and successful builders. They built a home with a shop in front for William and Ethel Diamond on the corner of Norton Road & Taniwha Street. For themselves, they built a substantial home in Boundary Road Claudelands in which Margaret established a lying in home for expectant mothers. Bill Brewster remembered his grandmother Margaret well because “she confined Mum (Josie) when Don was born – a dour tubby little Scots lass.” – Bill remembered her “balling Colin out when he didn’t jump to it.”

Keith Harwood remembered his Grandmother’s death during influenza epidemic of 1918. Two men passing nearby had come across a well-dressed young man collapsed on the road. They carried him to Margaret’s home, knowing it was a nursing home and expecting to find help for him there. Margaret recognized the sick man as a lay preacher at the local Methodist Church and took him in to nurse him. Within a week both Margaret and the young man were dead. Margaret died on 20th November 1918 and is buried in Hamilton East Cemetery. The memorial placed on Margaret’s grave captures the distress felt at her loss. It reads:-

verse from Margaret Scott's gravestone

Sources

1. ↑ The Colonist, Colonist, Volume XXII, Issue 2576, 17 July 1879

• N.S.W. BIRTH - 153/1861 - DIAMOND MARGARET - parents : WILLIAM & JOHANNA - birth registered at SYDNEY
• N.Z. MARRIAGE - 1879/1535 Margaret Diamond & Walter Portallack Scott
• N.Z. DEATH - 1918/9113 Scott Margaret aged 58 years