Hardwicke, New Zealand

Last updated

Hardwicke
Graveyard of the Hardwicke Settlement site.jpg
Settlement graveyard, 2011
Etymology: Earl of Hardwicke
New Zealand Outlying Islands location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Hardwicke
Location in New Zealand
Coordinates: 50°32′40″S166°12′37″E / 50.54444°S 166.21028°E / -50.54444; 166.21028
Country New Zealand
Island Auckland Island
EstablishedDecember 1849
AbandonedAugust 1852
Population
 (1850)
  Total66

Hardwicke was the name of an agricultural and whaling community set up at Port Ross, a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands in the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand. Although a short-lived settlement was established, it was abandoned within three years.

History

Settlement graveyard in 1909 FMIB 50705 Cemetery at Port Ross, Auckland Islands.jpg
Settlement graveyard in 1909

This colonial settlement was first proposed in 1846. The Southern Whale Fishery Company was formed in Britain and granted a Royal Charter with its founder, Charles Enderby, as the resident chief commissioner and lieutenant governor of the new colony. Charles Enderby was the son of Samuel Enderby, founder of the London whaling company Samuel Enderby & Sons.

The Enderby Settlement was the start of the establishment of Hardwicke, the intended ship provisioning and whaling station in Erebus Cove, Port Ross, at the north-eastern end of Auckland Island, close to Enderby Island. [1]

Settlement began in December 1849. [2] Three ships, the Samuel Enderby, Fancy and Brisk from Britain arrived at Port Ross with the intending colonists, prefabricated houses and bricks with which to build chimneys. The settlers were carefully chosen to establish the new colony. They included women and children as well as farm workers, shipwrights, a surgeon, a civil engineer and other people with appropriate skills. [1]

When the colonists arrived at Port Ross they found a group of Ngāti Mutunga settlers, with their Moriori slaves from the Chatham Islands, already there, having arrived in 1842. [2] The new colonists compensated the Māori for enough land to build their colony, and then to help clear the forest, build roads and crew the ships, with the chiefs Matioro and Manutere (sometimes called Ngatere) appointed as constables to maintain law and order. [1] [3]

In January 1850, the settlement was officially named "Hardwicke" after the Earl of Hardwicke, the governor of the company. [2] Two farm sites were chosen, one on Auckland Island and the other on Enderby Island. However crops were difficult to grow because of poor soils, harsh climate and high rainfall. Livestock were hard to muster in the thick scrub. Whaling was also unproductive. Within three years, special commissioners from the whaling company decided to close the settlement as it was too expensive to maintain.

It was abandoned in August 1852, after a period of two years and nine months during which five weddings, sixteen births and two infant deaths had taken place. [2] In 1854, the island was also abandoned by Māori, most of whom resettled on Stewart Island, with the remainder returning to the Chathams. [3] Most of Hardwicke's buildings were disassembled and removed, leaving little evidence that settlement had occurred – the prefabricated buildings were later auctioned off in Sydney. [3]

Today all that remains is a cemetery containing six graves: the remains of infant settlers, and three subsequent castaways from the wrecks of the Dundonald (1907), Invercauld (1864), and General Grant (1866). [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auckland Islands</span> Volcanic archipelago in New Zealand

The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying 465 km (289 mi) south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying 460 km2 (180 sq mi), is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of 570 km2 (220 sq mi). The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatham Islands</span> Remote New Zealand archipelago

The Chatham Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 800 km (430 nmi) east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about 10 islands within an approximate 60 km (30 nmi) radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island (Rangiauria). They include New Zealand's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours. Some of the islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the unique flora and fauna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moriori</span> Indigenous Polynesian people of the Chatham Islands

The Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands. Moriori are Polynesian settlers who came from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 CE. which was close to the time of the shift from the archaic to the classical period of Polynesian Māori culture on the mainland. Oral tradition records migration to the Chathams in the 16th century. The settlers' culture diverged from mainland Māori, and they developed a distinct Moriori language mythology, artistic expression and way of life. Currently there are around 700 people who identify as Moriori, most of whom no longer live on the Chatham Islands. During the late 19th century some prominent anthropologists proposed that Moriori were pre-Māori settlers of mainland New Zealand, and possibly Melanesian in origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auckland Island</span> Island off Southern New Zealand

Auckland Island is the main island of the eponymous uninhabited archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the New Zealand subantarctic area. It is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the other New Zealand Subantarctic Islands in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Marsden</span> Church of England chaplain, missionary, agriculturalist, magistrate (1765–1838)

Samuel Marsden was an English-born priest of the Church of England in Australia and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society. He played a leading role in bringing Christianity to New Zealand. Marsden was a prominent figure in early New South Wales and Australian history, partly through his ecclesiastical offices as the colony's senior Church of England cleric and as a pioneer of the Australian wool industry, but also for his employment of convicts for farming and his actions as a magistrate at Parramatta, both of which attracted contemporary criticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enderby Island</span> Island of the New Zealand-administered Auckland group in the subantarctic South Pacific

Enderby Island is part of New Zealand's uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago, south of mainland New Zealand. It is situated just off the northern tip of Auckland Island, the largest island in the archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Auckland</span> History of the city of Auckland, New Zealand

The human history of the Auckland metropolitan area stretches from early Māori settlers in the 14th century to the first European explorers in the late 18th century, over a short stretch as the official capital of (European-settled) New Zealand in the middle of the 19th century to its current position as the fastest-growing and commercially dominating metropolis of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Four Ships</span> Ships chartered by the Canterbury Association to transport English colonists to New Zealand (1850)

The First Four Ships refers to the four sailing vessels chartered by the Canterbury Association which left Plymouth, England, in September 1850 to transport the first English settlers to new homes in Canterbury, New Zealand. The colonists or settlers who arrived on the first four ships are known as the Canterbury Pilgrims.

The history of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand dates back to settlement by Māori people in about the 14th century.

As sealing at Bass Strait and the Antipodes Islands declines, Foveaux Strait becomes the focus for sealers from the middle of the year. The Bounty and Auckland Islands are also visited. Whaling is carried out on the east coast of New Zealand with the Bay of Islands being the usual port of call for provisioning. As many as nine ships whaling together for months at a time can occur. The behaviour of the whalers at the Bay of Islands is again commented on unfavourably, this time by a former missionary on one of the whaling ships. There are also a number of vessels collecting sandalwood from Tonga or Fiji; the majority call at the Bay of Islands en route.

There is a new sealing rush to the Bounty and Auckland Islands. Sealing also continues at Bass Strait and the Antipodes Islands. Foveaux Strait is a frequent stop for these sealing ships. Whaling continues off the east coast of the North Island. Ships are now visiting the Bay of Islands on a reasonably regular basis. The first reports about the poor behaviour of visiting ship's crew are sent to the Church Missionary Society in London.

Sealing continues at Bass Strait and the Antipodes Islands. At the end of the year there is a new sealing rush to the Bounty and Auckland Islands. Few sealers, if any, are known to have visited the Foveaux Strait area at this time, although this may be due in part to the secrecy of the captains and owners in reporting where they operate and/or the existence of the Strait not yet being widely known. Whaling continues off the east coast of the North Island. Ships are now visiting the Bay of Islands on a reasonably regular basis. The first reports about the poor behaviour of ships crews are sent to the Church Missionary Society in London.

Samuel Enderby was an English whale oil merchant, significant in the history of whaling in the United Kingdom. In the 18th century, he founded Samuel Enderby & Sons, a prominent shipping, whaling, and sealing company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Ross</span> Natural harbour on Auckland Island, New Zealand

Port Ross is a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands Group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands.

Samuel Enderby & Sons was a whaling and sealing company based in London, England, founded circa 1775 by Samuel Enderby (1717–1797). The company was significant in the history of whaling in the United Kingdom, not least for encouraging their captains to combine exploration with their business activities, and sponsored several of the earliest expeditions to the subantarctic, Southern Ocean and Antarctica itself.

Charles Enderby (1797–1876) was one of three sons of Samuel Enderby Junior (1756–1829). He was the grandson of Samuel Enderby (1717–1797), who founded the Samuel Enderby & Sons company in 1775. Samuel Enderby & Sons was one of the most prominent English sealing and whaling firms, active in both the Arctic and Southern Oceans. Charles and his two brothers, Henry and George, inherited Samuel Enderby & Sons when their father Samuel Junior died in 1829. They moved the company headquarters in 1830 from Paul's Wharf to Great St. Helens in London.

The Southern Whale Fishery Company was established by the granting of a royal charter in 1846 to Charles Enderby, for the purpose of operating a permanent whaling station on the Auckland Islands. Charles Enderby was the grandson of Samuel Enderby, founder of the prominent sealing and whaling firm, Samuel Enderby & Sons.

Abraham Bristow (c1771-1846) was a British mariner, sealer and whaler. In August 1806 he discovered the Auckland Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanto-Bordelaise Company</span>

The Nanto-Bordelaise Company — formally La Compagnie de Bordeaux et de Nantes pour la Colonisation de l’Île du Sud de la Nouvelle Zélande et ses Dépendances — was a French company inaugurated in 1839 by a group of merchants from the cities of Nantes and Bordeaux, with the purpose of founding a French colony in the South Island of New Zealand.

<i>Comte de Paris</i> (ship)

The Comte de Paris was a French sailing ship bound for Akaroa, New Zealand, in 1840. The purpose of the voyage was to develop a French colony in the South Island of New Zealand. The voyage was led by the Commissioner of the King of France, Captain Charles Lavaud, who was to represent the French in New Zealand until a governor arrived.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dingwall, Paul R.; Jones, Kevin L. (2009). "The Enderby Settlement (1849–52): Archaeological reconstruction of a British Colonial settlement at the Auckland Islands". In Dingwall, Paul; Jones, Kevin; Egerton, Rachael (eds.). In Care of the Southern Ocean : an Archaeological and Historical Survey of the Auckland Islands. Auckland: New Zealand Archaeological Association. ISBN   978-0-9582977-0-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Murihiku timeline (Abandoned website) Backup copy at the Wayback Machine.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Rykers, Ellen (July–August 2018). "The lie of the land". New Zealand Geographic. 152: 92–103.