Her husband, Robert Cullen  was the seventh child of James Cullen and Jane Stevenson. James was one of the first settlers to come to N. Zealand from Scotland on the ‘Bengal Merchant’ in 1839.

James Cullen, then aged 20 took an interest in the colonisation schemes then being formulated and in 1839 the New Zealand Company was ready to launch its plans. In Scotland a West of Scotland Committee had been formed by several notable people. When the scheme eventually became reality this committee gave a dinner in the Glasgow Trades Hall to farewell the 89 emigrants ready to leave on the “Bengal Merchant”. It was the only one of the eight main ships for the Wellington settlement to leave from Scotland. James Cullen was among those 89 emigrants listening to the lengthy farewell speeches. His brother Peter Smith Cullen came to New Zealand twenty years later.

A son of James’s sister Mrs. Buchanan of Baljaffra Farm Garscadden, Scotland, was the founder of the Black and White Whiskey. He was honoured by Queen Victoria and was given the title of Lord Wallavington. Another nephew, the son of his sister Mrs. Young became a famous Harley Street Specialist. Members of the family, the Hamilton-Browns of Kilsyth, who owned coal-mines in that vicinity were visited by grandsons of James Cullen when they served in the 1914-1918 War. There are many descendants of William and Margaret Cullen still farming in Scotland as well as in England at the present time.
James spent five years in Wellington after his arrival there in February 1840 and he came to Dunedin in 1845. He married on March 22,1850 Jane Stevenson, who arrived along with her family in 1848 by the “Philip Laing”. James farmed at the Taieri from 1853 until he retired to West Taieri in 1891. He died on April 11th, 1905 and is buried at East Taieri. A characteristic of James, remembered by all who knew him was his cheerful conversation and ever ready laughter.
 

Jane Stevenson, the wife of James Cullen, was the daughter of John and Isabella Blair Stevenson. Jane was born in Kilsyth, Glasgow on December 28th, 1824. She sailed with her four brothers, William, James, John and Peter and her sister Ann with their mother Mrs. Isabella Blair Stevenson, who was the matron of the “Philip Laing”. They left Scotland in September 1847 and arrived in Port Chalmers on April 17th, 1848. The passengers of the “Philip Laing” were very carefully selected, all devout members of the Free Church of Scotland. Isabella Blair Stevenson (Jane’s mother) was obviously a lady of some standing, to have been chosen to be the matron of the ship.

The Stevenson family was connected with Robert Louis Stevenson. A recent research by Robert Walker has contributed this story. A member of the family remembered a letter of greetings from Robert Louis Stevenson to his “cousins in Dunedin” written from Auckland where Robert Louis had a brief stay on his way to find health in Samoa. The letter had been directed to William Stevenson (the brother of Jane.) About the year 1917 this letter was on loan along with the family Bible to the Otago Early Settlers Association for an exhibition. Although repeatedly asked for, the Bible was returned but not the letter. Eventually, Robert Walker heard through Miss Pryde that a woman who had catalogued all the literature in the basement of the museum remembered the letter from Robert Louis Stevenson. It had been auctioned by Messrs. Rileys of Dunedin and sold to a school teacher, whom she understood, later sold it in England.

The Stevenson family, according to Robert Louis’ researches came to Glasgow at the beginning of the 17th century from the Western highlands of Scotland.  From the Stevenson side of the Cullen family came the exceptional kindliness. Jane was remembered by all who knew her as kindly in the extreme. She spent the biggest part of her life on the Taieri and is buried at East Taieri.

Robert Cullen was the seventh child of James and Jane Cullen. He was born at East Taieri in 1862, the year that Lake Waihola was frozen so completely that wagons with their teams of horses were being driven over it! He married Margaret Gawn, the daughter of a North Taieri farmer who named his property “Deer Park”.  Part of this farm is now the Taieri aerodrome.

When Robert married Margaret Gawn in 1891 he leased Owhiro from his father with the arrangement that it became his own property on his father’s death. He carried on the farm work as his father had done before him. Money was not plentiful in Robert’s time either; but in 1906 he had sufficient funds for the improvement of the old home. The last of the sun-dried bricks were pulled down at the back of the house. The original staircase from the kitchen to the bedrooms was removed, and a much better one was built up to a landing. Owhiro was the meeting place for Robert’s brothers at Winter Show time in Dunedin. Five of the brothers had their own farms, and it was a time of the year they all looked forward to, to be together and to discuss the agricultural and political problems of the day. Robert’s wife was never happier than when she had the house full of guests.
F or many years Robert was a member of the Taieri Agricultural Society ofwhich Association he was President in 1899. He represented the Owhiro Subdivision of the Taieri Drainage district before it was merged into another body. He was also on the Allanton School Committee for many years. Robert had a life long connection with the East Taieri Church and was an office bearer for forty-one years-an elder from 1919-1940. He was quietly spoken and an unobtrusive worker.