I can’t say whether Elizabeth Watts-Russell was one of those who laughed when the Ward brothers – Edward, Henry and Hamilton – chose Quail Island as the place to set up their farm. The brothers were well aware of the giggles happening around Lyttelton as they prepared to make their move. Edward – the eldest …
The Meditation Of A Cockroach I am no less than a cockroach bold, creeping and crawling from deck to hold, hunting each cabin and hammock and bed, under the pillow where rests your head, under the tablecloth, up the chair, I run up your sleeves and I crawl through your hair; neither man or child …
As a teenager, Charles Bowen found himself rubbing shoulders with worldly wisdom and business knowledge in the shape of John Robert Godley, James Edward Fitzgerald and Lord Lyttelton. He was a budding Irish law student absorbing all he could amongst the upper class ranks of the Canterbury Association in which he had taken a keen …
“The entrance to Port Cooper [Lyttelton] is very grand. As we sailed slowly up it, we saw high on the cliffs to our right, the workmen making a road [Sumner Road] to the plains, an undertaking, alas, far too great for our infant colony. Just at the moment we passed a little headland, and there …
Edward Brenchley Bishop must have been relieved as he watched the timber for his new house arrive via the Heathcote River; it hadn’t been an easy adventure so far. He and his family had made the trek over the Bridle Path, leading a single packhorse along with them that carried a simple tent and supplies. …
As the ‘Charlotte Jane’ sailed into Lyttelton Harbour that fine morning of the 16th December 1850, William and Jane McCormack were ready to leave their steerage voyage behind them and make a go at a new life in a new land. There is very little about the pair, I don’t know if they were married …
Among the other immigrants aboard the ‘Charlotte Jane’ were cousins, Thomas and Charles Cholmondeley. Unlike many of the other settlers on board, these cousins had no obvious reason to seek out a chance for a better life. They came from a very rich noble family…maybe this was the reason the pair broke away – that …
Jabez Thornton arrived at Lyttelton on the ‘Charlotte Jane’ on the 16th December 1850. He was 32 years old and was on his own. A Carpenter by trade, he married Mary Coster on the 16th September 1852. As there was no church at Lyttelton at that stage, they were married in a temporary church. They …
“On board the Charlotte Jane…I try to recollect the events of the past five days, which from confusion, sickness and disagreeables of every kind could not be recorded at the time…”Edward Ward – 12th September 1850.The Charlotte Jane had sailed out of Plymouth on the 7th September 1850. Edward starts his journal off on the …
“Having reached the island which Quail Island rises to about 250 ft above the level of the harbour I landed at a shelly beach and ascended the hill in order to correct and complete my sketch. During my walk there I flushed several quail and from that circumstance I gave it the name Quail Island.” …
