Paton Road
Paton Road is named after John and Jane Paton, who lived at "Springbank" farm on what is now Bleakhouse Road.
Family stories tell us that John joined the British Army as a drummer-boy and served at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, at the age of 14, where he was wounded. He went on to serve in the British Army for more than 20 years before becoming a policeman at Bankfoot in Scotland.
It was there he met Jane Robertson, a widow with three daughters. In an era when a woman who lost her husband often had to remarry to ensure support for her family, John stepped up. They married in 1843, with John helping to raise and support Jane's daughters from her previous marriage.
In 1847, the Patons sailed to New Zealand aboard the Minerva as part of the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps, settling in Howick.
They were granted a 5-acre allotment on Bleakhouse Road on 29 December 1853. In 1855 they purchased an adjacent 5 acres, and in 1874 a further 30 acres thus growing their holding into a proper farmlet. Jane was known to trundle eggs produced on the farm down to the market herself.
John passed away in 1879 at the age of 80.
In her later years, Jane became a beloved figure in the community. Known affectionately as "Granny Paton", she took on the role of wise woman and midwife to the residents of Howick. She is remembered as fanatically clean and for her deep love of babies.
Although she later remarried to a Charles Farmer, upon her own passing in 1902, she was buried alongside John Paton, the husband of more than 30 years. Her headstone in St Andrews Cemetery reads:
"In Loving Memory of Jane, relict of the late Charles Farmer, (formerly widow of John Paton) age 87.
'One less at home - the charmed circle broken, dear face missed by day from its accustomed place: but cleansed and saved and perfected by grace, one more in Heaven.'"
The family homestead, which stood at the corner of Bleakhouse and Paton Roads, was sadly demolished in 1978. But their legacy and name lives on.
Do you have a connection to the Paton family?
