“[Robert Heaton]Rhodes (otherwise Bob the nipper)was there. What a different version one hears of the same story. It had been told greatly to [John] Deans’ credit that when the first 4 ships came out Deans supplied the settlers with meat at 6d a lb, whilst Rhodes [pictured] raised the price to 8d a lb which …
“You will see that E.G. [Edward Gibbon]Wakefield (pictured) and Mr. [Henry] Sewell are no means favourites here, and that they will find more difficulty than they anticipated in saddling the colony with the [Canterbury] Association’s debt, or selling certain lands and buildings which are either reserved for the public purposes or built with the money …
On the last Sunday of October 1853, in a small carpentry shop in Cashel Street, owned by James Johnston, a small group of Scottish Presbyterian settlers gathered together. Among them were John and Jane Deans. Not only was this an historic day for the Anglican based Canterbury but it was a day of reflection and …
William Deans (1817 – 1851) Drowned Place of Death: Wellington Memorial at Barbadoes Street Cemetery * Christchurch’s First Justice of Peace. John Deans (1820 – 1854) Died of T.B. Place of Death: Riccarton Buried at Barbadoes Street Cemetery Jane Deans (1823 – 1911) Died of old …
William Flower Blatchford (pictured on the right)arrived in Canterbury on the 1st March 1851 aboard the ‘Isabella Hercus’, the Canterbury Association’s 6th emigrant ship. From all accounts and from where he put down his roots, he seemed very fond of Lyttelton Harbour. The bay of Te Rapu – named after a stream that flows through …
“Port Cooper [Canterbury] is described by very person to be splendid place for a settlement and I have no doubt there will be one formed there in a few years by which time we will have a pretty extensive stock and be able to supply the settlers with butcher meat, working bullocks, vegetables and a …
Thomas Hanmer (1827-1892) is mostly known as the man which Hanmer Springs is named after – even though he never settled there. He was the first to survey the area in 1852. Named “Te Whakatakaka O Te O Ahi Tamatea” by the Maori, to the Europeans it was a good route to drive their cattle …
The Sir George Seymour was the third ship to dock at Lyttelton, arriving 24 hours (to the hour) after the Charlotte Jane dropped her anchor. She was though, the last of the four to leave England, carrying 227 souls to a new life. Before her journey to Lyttelton in 1850, she had a history as …
Henry Sewell could do amazing things with money and numbers – which made him more than a little unpopular! Henry’s father died when he was teenager and left a £3000 debt over the family from a collapsed banking project. Maybe this was when Henry’s number skills became prominent as he tackled the debt full on. …
The news of finding coal at Homebush had been pretty exciting for the Deans and all concerned. James McIlraith – Jane Deans’ half brother and manager of Homebush – and Julius van Haast – the founder of the Canterbury Museum – had made the discovery in the late 1870’s. Just two years later, a coal …
