The History of the Ryburns   -:  AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND  :-

Home

Variations

Ayrshire

Kintyre

Ireland

Americas

Au & NZ

Sources

Links

DNA

The following tree of most New Zealand Ryburns (and a few Australians) is mainly the work of my cousin Michael Gray of Auckland, New Zealand, and his mother Enid. There are about 200 Ryburns in this tree, which is in the form of a zipped GEDCOM file, easily imported into most genealogy programs after unzipping :-    New Zealand Ryburn Tree  ZIP (GEDCOM)  50Kbyte The earliest Ryburn I have found in Australasia was a 'forty niner', Charles Ryburn, who came to Australia in 1851.   'Charles Bannatyne Steven Ryburn' was born in Stewarton, Ayrshire, in 1825, and named after his local minister.  He was a gold miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush, then in Australia.  He was a brother of Thomas, David and Elizabeth Ryburn who settled in Illinois, USA.  Sometimes spelt 'Reyburn' in Ayrshire, they all used 'Ryburn' in later life.  Charles probably joined Joseph Zumwalt's 1849 wagon train from Will Co., Illinois, to California.  After arriving in Australia Charles appears to have traveled to the Turon Golfields in New South Wales, as on 11 Dec 1852 a "Ryburn" was employed there by William Hardy to supervise the construction of a water race at "Reuben's Bar". In Jan 1853 a "C. Ryburn", probably Charles, arrived in Syney on the American ship Rajah Wallie, from Batavia and Melbourne.  Charles must have returned to Melbourne, as he died single in 1854 at Cardigan St., Melbourne, of what looks like 'Loco Fever'.  His occupation was given as 'Draper' and 'Gold Digger'. Also early in Melbourne were a James Ryburn, who attended a meeting of land and house holders in North Melborne on 13 Nov, 1854, and Robert and Mary (nee McLauchlan) Ryburn, who married in Paisley, Scotland, in 1850.  Robert was a labourer born in Paisley about 1826.  He was living with Mary at 60 George St, Paisley in the 1851 census.  Robert sailed first, possibly with the above James.  Robert had unclaimed mail at Melbourne GPO on 16 Dec, 1854.  Mary (26) and Duncan Ryburn (3) from Paisley are recorded as arriving in 1857 on the 'Almora', ex Liverpool, heading for Little Alexander St, Collingwood.  Her occupation was 'housekeeper', and she could 'read & write'.  Robert and Mary had a daughter 'Jennet' in 1859, in North Melbourne. Janet died in Hawthorn in 1926, age 68, apparently unmarried. There is a 'Ryeburne Avenue' and a 'Ryburne Road' in Melbourne, but no further descendants are known. A descendant of Ayrshire Ryburns, Robert Reyburn, emigrated with his wife Hannah and two sons to New Zealand from Scotland in 1859, becoming a prominent citizen in Whangarei.  He was born in 1810 to John Reyburn, bonnet maker of Kilmarnock and part coal-mine owner.  Interestingly, his youngest son, John Gee Reyburn, who was married in Otahuhu in 1862 to Jessie Main, lived in Panmure near Robert McNair Ryburn and must have been known to him.  He was in the 1865 electoral role as "John George Ryburn", but he died the same year as "John Gee Reyburn".  Reyburns still live in New Zealand.  David Reyburn of Whangarei has built a family tree going back to 1620 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. As far as I know, all present-day New Zealand Ryburns descend from two brothers, James and Robert McNair (sometimes Robert "Nair") Ryburn, who came from Scotland to Auckland, New Zealand.  They were the only surviving sons of James Ryburn and Isabella McNair, the fifth Ryburn generation living near Campbeltown, Kintyre, Scotland, and were late Highland Clearance victims, evicted from farms there by that powerful Scottish lord, the Duke of Argyll. Robert sailed first on the 'Spray of the Ocean', arriving in Auckland in 1 September 1859, where he became a farmer at Panmure, a seed merchant and commercial traveller. His farm was called "Greenbank".  In 1863 he married Sophia Middleton Hamlin, daughter of James Hamlin, a Church of England missionary who arrived in the Bay of Islands, northern New Zealand, in 1826.  Click the top-left photo to see Robert & Sophia's family.  In 1869 Robert was elected as the Tamaki Representative on the Auckland Provincial Council. James Ryburn, with his mother Isabella, sister Martha and her husband Archibald Stewart, and an orphaned relative Mary Ryburn arrived in Auckland 15 Feb, 1866, on the sailing ship 'Mary Shepherd'.  Isabella, at 72, must have suffered greatly on this particularlly gruelling voyage, which was described in detail in an article in 'The Daily Southern Cross', Auckland.  During rough weather much water came between decks and the galley fires were put out.  Much damage was sustained. James Ryburn married Mary Short at Wairoa, South of Auckland, in 1867, ultimately producing 11 children.  He became a pioneer farmer at Paterangi, south of Hamilton.  In 1864 this area saw heavy fighting during the Maori Wars.  Many of James' descendants were also North Island farmers.  Their second son Ernest became a grain merchant in the gold-minining town of Waihi, and their youngest son Frank was killed at the Somme in 1916.  If anyone has a photo of James's family, I would like to include it on this page. A Thomas Ryburn of Wairoa appears in the 1868 NZ Government Gazette as a shareholder in 'The British Empire Gold Mining Co.', which operated in the 'Karaka Block' of the Thames Goldfields. This is presumably the same Wairoa as that of James and Mary Ryburn, so he was probably known to them.  I suspect he may have actually been the "Thomas Ryburn Buckley", who was struck from the Tauranga electoral role in 1871. The Auckland Herald of 10 April, 1869, reported that a "respectably-dressed" and "perfectly-sober" William Ryburn, aged about 35, committed suicide by jumping overboard at night from the barque 'Prince Alfred', while enroute from Sydney to Auckland.  He took with him all his luggage, as well as "a splendid gold watch and all his money".  I don't know of any candidate for this William. He may have been a Raeburn, or some spelling variant. My grandfather. Robert Middleton ('Mid') Ryburn, 2nd son of Robert and Sophia, married Anna Jane Steadman at Opoho, Dunedin, 1892.  The officiating minister was the Rev. Dr Dunlop my maternal great grandfather.  During his life, Mid was a Presbyterian minister in Gisborne, Wanganui, Invercargill and Christchurch.  In 1916 he was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand.  Their first son, Eric, was wounded at Gallipoli during World War I, then as a 2nd Lieutenant killed in 1917 at Passchendaele. Their second son was my father, Hubert James Ryburn, who was in France near the end of World War I, then with the occupying forces in Germany.  In 1921 he won a Rhodes Scolarship to Lincoln College, Oxford.  After two years at Union Seminary in New York, and a short time preaching on the Praries in Canada, in 1926 he became a Presbyterian minister in Northland, NZ. In 1931 Hubert married Jocelyn Maud Dunlop, eldest daughter of Dundee-born Frank Dunlop, "Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy" at the University of Otago, Dunedin.  Hubert was a minister at St Andrews in Dunedin, then in 1941 Master of Knox College, a student hall of residence and theology centre.  Jocelyn served as National President of the Royal Plunket Society, long dedicated to the health of mothers and infants.  My father became Chancellor of the University of Otago in 1955, and capped me as an undergraduate in 1965.  Jocelyn died in 1980.  In 1981 Hubert  was remarried to Isabella (Ella) Patterson.  He died in 1988. I am the youngest of four children - Sheila, Graham, Judith and Roderick.  I can still remember Spitfires and Mustangs piloted by former students doing barrel rolls over Knox College after World War II.  I graduated with an MSc in Geology, before taking a job in 1967 with the Bureau of Mineral Resources (now Geoscience Australia) in Canberra.  I later completed a PhD at Auckland, and have worked in New Zealand, Antarctica, New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere.  With 4 daughters, I am not doing my bit for the survival of the Ryburn name!  My brother Graham has done somewhat better. My cousin Michael Gray is the eldest son of Marshal Gray and Enid Ryburn, youngest daughter of Robert and Anna.  His younger brother, Tim Gray, has followed in Hubert's footsteps by running several student halls of residence at Otago University, including Knox College. Six Ryburns have been Presbyterian ministers.  Mid Ryburn's younger brother, Josaiah, was a missionary in Poona and the Punjab, India.  Morton, the son of Mid Ryburn's older brother, James, was also a missionary in India and a prolific writer on education.  Josaiah's son Ian Ryburn fought in World War II and was captured in 1941 on Crete.  In 1943, the German High Command allowed him, and a New Zealand chaplain, to travel from POW camps in Upper Silesia, Poland, to Genshagen Holiday Camp, Berlin, where Ian was ordained as a minister.  He spent his last year in captivity there, working as a double agent for MI6. Genshagen Camp was effectively run by the British spy, John Brown. Last Updated 7 July, 2016

Map of New Zealand, courtesy Google Maps. Robert Reyburn's house (on river with 3 gables) in Whangarei, ~1875.  Courtesy reyburnhouse.co.nz.   Lost ad in the  Sydney Morning Herald, 10 Mar, 1869 Robert "Nair" Ryburn was probably visting Sydney. Orphan Mary Ryburn  before her 1869 mariage to John Sutherland in Auckland.  Courtesy Susy Aitkenhead. Mid Ryburn and Anna Steadman's Wedding, Opoho, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1892.  Click to enlarge. 'Mid' and Anna Ryburn's Family, St Pauls Presbyterian Church, Wanganui, 1907.  Click to enlarge. All grand children of Mid Ryburn, Ashburton, 1954. At the house of Dr Bill Ryburn.  Click to enlarge. Knox College, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2009. Hubert and Jocelyn Ryburn with Queen Elizabeth II, Otago University, Dunedin, May 17, 1970. Hubert Ryburn with his descendant families, James Hamlin Reunion, Auckland, 1986.  Click to enlarge. Rod Ryburn camped at Buckley and Darwin Nunataks, Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica, 1965. Memorial plaque to Robert and his mother Isabella, Point England Presbyterian Church, Tamaki, Auckland.