Back to John, there is an advertisement in the 23 June 1877 edition of

Dunedin’s Evening Star asking for a John B Anderson to collect mail from home (Dundee) but this may not be our man. I don’t know if John was in Halifax with most of the rest of his siblings before he migrated. However, his trade was dyeing, complementing his brothers’ roles in Dunedin’s burgeoning wool industry. Indeed, looking at the advertisements for Anderson Brothers, Ravensbourne, it seems that dyeing was their primary function. Perhaps their UK agent was twice brother-in-law, Donald Ramsey Edgar, drysalter and specialist in analine dyes.    

In 1881, John’s qualification for the electoral roll was freehold sections 20 and

27 in Rothesay (brother William had sections 23 A and B). I must say, I’d never heard of a Rothesay in my home town but Mr Google tells me it was one of the pretty little villages that “flecked” the district of Dunedin’s West Harbour. In 1905, the area was “a popular residential borough for city business people” – shades of Broughty Ferry’s function for the well-heeled of Dundee.

In 1911, John and Agnes were still in Rothesay, in Montague Street. Aged

around 65, he had not retired, his occupation was still dyer. He died just three years later, on 20 March 1914, aged around 68 years.    

John was possibly the most adept of the Anderson siblings at flying under

the radar, or just living a quiet, stable life. I have found no record of his or Agnes’ migration to Dunedin. There is a near decade-long gap between the births of his middle two children for which I have no explanation. He didn’t make the papers as his brothers and sister, Elizabeth, did. A search brought no probate records. There doesn’t appear to be any descendant to approach to ask about his life. As with his life, a quiet end to his story. I have found Agnes’ signature on the 1893 Women Suffrage Petition Roll. John, Agnes and infant son, John Bain A, are buried in Dunedin's Northern Cemetery. Of their other three children, none became parents.