Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand
The Canterbury Association was formed in order to establish a colony in what is now the Canterbury Region in the South Island of New Zealand.
Contents |
Formation of the Association
The Association was founded in London on March 27, 1848, and incorporated by Royal Charter on November 13, 1849. The prime movers were Edward Gibbon Wakefield and John Robert Godley. Wakefield was heavily involved in the New Zealand Company, which by that time had already established four other colonies in New Zealand. He approached Godley to help him establish a colony sponsored by the Church of England. The President of the Association's Committee of Management was the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Committee itself included several other bishops and clergy, as well as members of the peerage and Members of Parliament. At its first meeting, the Association decided upon names. The settlement was to be called Canterbury, presumably after the Archbishop of Canterbury, the seat of the settlement Christchurch after the Oxford college at which Godley had studied.
Establishment of the Colony
The Association had arranged to buy land from the New Zealand Company for 10 shillings per acre (4000 m²). The land was then sold to the emigrants for £3 per acre. The rest, the additional £2 10s, was to be used in "public objects such as emigration, roads, and Church and school endowments." (20 shillings = £1). The provision of funds for 'emigration' was to allow the Association to offer assisted passages to members of the working classes with desirable skills for the new colony. A poster advertising the assisted passages specifically mentions "Gardeners, Shep[herd]s, Farm Servants, Labourers and Country Mechanics". Evidence for the religious nature of the colony can be seen in the same poster's requirement that applicants should be vouched for by the clergyman of their parish, and in the fact that some of the proceeds from land sales were specifically earmarked for church endowments.
Godley (with his family) went out to New Zealand in early 1850 to oversee the preparations for the settlement (surveying, roads, accommodation, etc) which were already being undertaken by a large team of men under the direction of Captain Joseph Thomas. These preparations were advanced, but incomplete when the first ships of settlers arrived on December 16, 1850, having been halted by Godley shortly after his arrival in April due to the mounting debts of the Association. The Charlotte-Jane and Randolph arrived in Lyttelton Harbour on the 16th, the Sir George Seymour on the 17th, and Cressy on the 27th, having set sail from England in September 1850. The settlers on these first four ships were dubbed the Canterbury Pilgrims by the British press. A further 24 shiploads of Canterbury Association settlers, making a total of approximately 3,500, arrived over the next two and a half years.
The affairs of the Canterbury Association were wound up in 1853.
The First Four Ships
Charlotte-Jane
The Charlotte Jane was one of the first four ships in 1850 to carry emigrants from England to the new colony of Canterbury in New Zealand.
The Randolph, the Cressy, the Sir George Seymour and the Charlotte Jane together carried an estimated 790 passengers. In addition, about another 60 worked their passage on the ships or deserted and disembarked. The first of the vessels to arrive was the Charlotte Jane in Lyttelton on 16 December 1850 in the morning. The Randolph followed that afternoon. The Sir George Seymour arrived on 17 December, followed by the Cressy on 27 December.
The first passenger who leapt onto the shore was James FitzGerald, who became an important politician in New Zealand. One of her most notable passengers was the architect Benjamin Mountfort.
The Charlotte Jane carried perhaps 154 passengers. Exact numbers are not known because the surgeons' lists and the shipping lists do not match, and some young children were not counted.
The passengers aboard these four ships were referred to as "the Pilgrims". Their names are inscribed on marble plaques in Cathedral Square in the centre of Christchurch.
Randolph
The Randolph was a 664-ton ship-rigged merchant vessel constructed in 1849 in Sunderland. She was one of the first four ships to settle Christchurch, New Zealand (the other three were Cressy, Sir George Seymour and Charlotte-Jane).
Randolph left Gravesend on September 4, 1850, and Plymouth on the night of September 7, 1850. The ship was chartered by the Canterbury Association, with Captain William Dale serving as the ship's captain. She arrived at Lyttelton 99 days later on December 16, 1850, with 34 cabin passengers, 15 intermediate and 161 steerage passengers.
She was lost on 25 June 1851, on a reef off Amber Island (Mapon). She had onboard a cargo of sugar for London, a large amount of money, and 254 Indian emigrants, for Port Louis. Nothing belonging to the vessel could be saved. Mr. Scott, an officer of the Madras Army, swam on shore, but died a moment after reaching it from exhaustion. Two European sailors, nine men (immigrants), ten women and three children were drowned.
Sir George Seymour
The Sir George Seymour was one of the first four ships in 1850 to carry emigrants from England to the new colony of Canterbury in New Zealand. The other three ships were Cressy, Charlotte-Jane and Randolph.
The Sir George Seymour left Plymouth Sound, England around 11am on Sunday, 8 September 1850, with about 227 passengers. She arrived in Lyttelton at 10am on Tuesday, 17 December 1850. The passengers aboard the first four ships were referred to as 'The Pilgrims'. Their names are inscribed on marble plaques in Cathedral Square in the centre of Christchurch.
It is presumed that the ship was named for Sir George Francis Seymour (17 September 1787 - 20 January 1870), an Admiral who married Georgina Mary Berkeley, daughter of Admiral Sir George Cranfield Berkeley.
Cressy
The Cressy was one of the first four ships in 1850 to carry emigrants from England to the new colony of Canterbury in New Zealand. The other ships were Charlotte-Jane, Sir George Seymour and Randolph.
The passengers aboard these four ships were referred to as the "Canterbury Pilgrims" of Christchurch. Their names are inscribed on a marble plaque in Cathedral Square in the centre of Christchurch.
External links
License
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Canterbury Association".
|
|
