It never seemed to occur to Charlotte Godley that staying behind in England was an understandable option. After all, her husband, John Robert Godley was not to be away in New Zealand for more than 3 years. Charlotte Griffith Wynne was born in North Wales in 1821. One of eight children in a well-to-do family, …
John Robert Godley was a man who everyone seemed to have an opinion about. One man would say “he was a King amongst men’ where another called him ‘a whale in a duck pond’. Both descriptions paint an image of the man who founded Christchurch. Born in Dublin in 1814, he grew up in the …
Here are the foundations of the house built for John Robert Godley, his wife Charlotte, their 3 year old son Arthur and two servants at Lyttelton – not very big huh? In 1940, this was covered up with a new building for Plunket. The house was built for Godley in 1850 and in the months …
Around 6th December 1850, Charlotte Godley (pictured later in life), the wife of Canterbury Founder John Robert Godley, became the first European woman to venture west of the Deans’ farm of Riccarton. She was in a party of nine people heading to Harewood (Oxford) Forest for a exploratory camping trip – roughly ten days before …
