Donald McLaren was born in Balquidden, Scotland around 1816 – 1826. With the English clearances
of that area Donald went to Wicklow in Ireland for work. He met and married Bridget Lee. She was
sixteen when she had her first child, possibly Robert. They had six children in total. Niel (drowned in
the Pahaoa river Wairarapa), James, William, Donald, and Peter the youngest.
In the 1860s four brothers Peter, Robert, James and Donald McLaren settled in Wairarapa buying the
15,000 acre farm Ngakanui. Robert was killed by a horned merino ram. Donald was killed when he
fell off his horse. James was shot when his dag triggered his muzzlle loading gun.
Peter Lee McLaren married Sarah Morison and had five children including Hugh Morison McLaren
my grandfather.
Sarah^ Lee McLaren (nee Morison), her son Hugh Morison McLaren and neice^ Mary Strang^
Hugh married Adeline Bertha Caverhill (Poppy) who was Gran to us. Gran trained as a nurse in the
Masterton hospital.
Hugh and Poppy farmed Taharoa, a sheep and beef station that was part of the original Ngakanui.
This was where Mum and her brothers Hugh and John lived as children although by the time Mum
was at Queen Margarets College in Wellington, her parents were living in their property,
Wharemoana, at Paraparamu. Brother Hugh was at an agricultural school at Ruakura Hamilton and
John was at Scotts College, Wellington. Bon’s parents travelled extensively by ship through Japan,
Egypt and Europe before the second world war.