…The Lastest Colonial Baby… – Edward Merson Templar (1820 – 1897)

“Have you not heard of the birth of the latest colonial baby?   Bishops and Bigwigs in at the accouchment – [Edward]Gibbon Wakefield (owner of the New Zealand Company) the monthly nurse – the new Canterbury Pilgrimage born with a flourish of trumpets and laying on of hands”. Edward Merson Templar (now remembered in the naming …

Mark Pringle Stoddard (1819 – 1885)

Mark Pringle Stoddard (1819 – 1885)    Died of old age       Place of Death: Christchurch * Remembered today in the naming of Diamond Harbour. * Was the first European to explore Lake Coleridge. Buried at the St Peter’s Anglican Cemetery, Church Corner, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch. The story of Diamond Harbour: http://www.peelingbackhistory.co.nz/diamond-harbour-mark-pringle-stoddard-1819-1885/ Photo taken …

DIAMOND HARBOUR – Mark Pringle Stoddard (1819 – 1885)

Charlotte Godley (wife of Christchurch’s founder John Robert Godley) didn’t miss a thing.  During her short time in New Zealand, she observed and met some of the very early colourful characters of Canterbury.  None escaped the fury of her pen when she wrote letters home to her mother in England. Mr. Mark Pringle Stoddard was …