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Title New Zealand Company, Correspondence. Wellington Original Despatches, 1850
Date Jan-Dec 1850
Document Type Correspondence; Personal Account
Reference CO 208/109
Library / Archive The National Archives
Collection Name New Zealand Company Original Correspondence, etc.
Description Letters predominantly sent or received by William Fox, Agent of the New Zealand Company in Wellington. Includes copies of letters and the journal of Mr Hamilton, sent to Fox and compiled by Hamilton as he travelled from Wellington to Port Cooper with local Māori, surveying the surrounding lands, especially near Otago, for speculative New Zealand Company settlement and expansion plans. Other letters and enclosures record statements of the provisions, medical comforts, etc. expended on board various emigrant vessels such as the 'Eden' for victualling passengers. There are passenger lists and records made by surgeons on board these ships attached. Letters also specifically refer to the emigration of single females sent on the 'Phoebe Dunbar' by the Ladies Female Emigration Society of Edinburgh to Nelson. Statements of land sales in areas such as Whanganui and Nelson created by the company are also enclosed within letters, with many letters discussing legal issues arising from advertisements issued to prospective purchasers encouraging them to send applications for conveyances to Company agents. The general financial accounts of the Company are also referred to throughout these letters.
Series Description This series contains original correspondence and entry books of the New Zealand Company which were handed over to the Colonial Office after the surrender of the company's charters in 1850. Also included are minutes, accounts, registers of emigrants and land transfer records.
Biographical Note / History The New Zealand Company was a chartered company formed in 1839 and incorporated in 1841 with power to buy, sell, settle and cultivate land in New Zealand. It did not prove a satisfactory agency for colonising New Zealand and was induced to surrender its charters in 1850. It was finally dissolved in 1858.
Theme(s) Politics, Legislation and Governance; Colonisation Companies and Emigration Societies; Ships and Shipping Lines
Country (from) Great Britain
Country (to) New Zealand
Places Whanganui, Wairarapa, Nelson, Canterbury, Otago, New Zealand; Edinburgh, Scotland
Ports Wellington, New Plymouth, Port Cooper, New Zealand; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality English; European; Māori; Scottish
Ships Acheron; Eden; Phoebe Dunbar; Poictiers; Berkshire; Pekin; Lady Nugent; John Wickliffe; Ajax; Mary; Monarch; Cornelia
People Fox, William; Hamilton, J W; Eyre, Edward John; Grey, Sir George; Murdoch, Alexander; Spencer, John; Tait, John E; Court, Charles; Leek, Agnes; Beal, Tom Shrubsole; Donnett, Alfred; Kelham, James; Joseph, Moses; Alfred, William
Keywords New Zealand Company, emigrant, emigration, emigration scheme, colony, colonisation, application, assisted emigration, bounty emigration, finance, land sale, allotments, land, agent, administration, shipping, settlement, indigenous people, surveying, expansion, exploration, geology, food, weather, nature, land grant, fishing and fishermen, commissionaires, harbour, army, surgeon, employment, passenger list, provisions, charter, administration, demographics, women, family, children, steerage, medical treatment, medicine, birth, death, tea, coffee, food, furniture, hospital, cargo, expenses, wages, labour, sailors, trade, unmarried, emigrant selection, female emigration, emigration society, legislation, law, advertisement, freight, Union Bank of Australia, free passage, accounts, expenditure
Language English
Copyright Crown Copyright documents © are reproduced by permission of The National Archives London, UK