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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
Magrath, John Andrew Nicholson
Magrath, John Andrew Nicholson Settler, “Ard Craith,” Otaihanga. The subject of this sketch was born in India in 1850. He comes of a military family, And in 1868, after passing through the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, he entered the 24th 2nd Warwickshire Regiment—now known as the South Wales Borderers—as ensign. It may be of interest to remark that Mr. Magrath's regiment was subsequently “cat up” in Zululand, during the war in that country. Leaving the army in 1871, he came to Wellington in the following year per ship “England.” After some years spent in the Rangitikei, Wanganui and Wairarapa districts, during which he was at times a teacher under the Wellington and Wanganui Education Boards, Mr. Magrath retired to the life of a settler at Otaihanga. His estate, “Ard Craith,”—Craith's or Magrath's hill—is beautifully situated, commanding a fine view of Kapiti and the adjacent coast of the South Island, and is about half cultivated. The property in the locality, which is some 400 acres in extent, is devoted to the breeding of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs of good varieties. He has some property in Donegal, Ireland, which is leased to a neighbouring landlord. In 1871 Mr. Magrath was married in Wanganui to a daughter of the late Captain Magrath, of the 65th Regiment, and has three sons and three daughters.