Isabella Williams (née Brough; 1806 – 8 August 1882) was a New Zealand businesswoman. [1] She established and managed a drapery store in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the late nineteenth century. [2]
Williams was born in Perthshire, Scotland, probably in 1806, as she was baptised at Errol on 25 January 1807. Her mother was Mary Valentine and her father, Charles Brough, was a labourer. [2]
When she was 25 years old, she married John Williams, a baker and confectioner. In 1850 the couple, with their two sons and five daughters, emigrated to New Zealand on the Randolph , one of the First Four Ships of settlers to sail from England to Lyttelton, New Zealand. The ship arrived on 16 December 1850 and a few days later the Williams decided that John would make the journey over the Port Hills to the new settlement of Christchurch to view their town section alone while Isabella and the children stayed in the immigration barracks in Lyttelton. [3] John Williams had a stroke while walking up the hills and died. [2]
The Anglican reverend Edward Puckle opened a subscription fund to raise money for Williams, and the Deans brothers, who were also settlers from Scotland, invited her to stay at their property in Riccarton. [3] Williams initially sold her husband's baking supplies, such as yeast, to fellow settlers, and then in 1852 opened a drapery business in Colombo Street opposite Market Place (now Victoria Square). She imported goods from Scotland and called the business Glasgow House. [2] Williams retired in 1871 and sold the business as a going concern. It eventually became part of a department store, T.J. Armstrong's. [1]
Williams died on 8 August 1882 and was buried at Barbadoes Street Cemetery. [2]
Randolph was a 664-ton ship-rigged merchant vessel constructed in 1849 in Sunderland. She was one of the First Four Ships that brought settlers to Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō, at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch, on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
The Bridle Path is a steep shared-use track that traverses the northern rim of the Lyttelton volcano connecting the port of Lyttelton with the city of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. It is a popular walking and mountain biking route. The track ascends from the port itself to a height of 333 metres (1,093 ft) before descending again via Heathcote Valley to Christchurch. At the summit, next to the Summit Road, is a stone shelter with covered seats that is a 1940 New Zealand centennial memorial to the Pioneer Women of Canterbury. There are also seven commemorative stone seats placed along the Bridle Path; most of these were built for the 1950 Canterbury centenary celebrations.
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 Canterbury Association was formed in 1848 in England by members of parliament, peers, and Anglican church leaders, to establish a colony in New Zealand. The settlement was to be called Canterbury, with its capital to be known as Christchurch. Organised emigration started in 1850 and the colony was established in the South Island, with the First Four Ships bringing out settlers steeped in the region's history. The Association was not a financial success for the founding members and the organisation was wound up in 1855.
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.
James Townsend was an English wine merchant, who in later life was a pioneer settler in New Zealand's South Island. He was also an amateur cricketer.
William Barbour Wilson, also known as Cabbage Wilson, was the first Mayor of Christchurch in New Zealand in 1868. A nurseryman by profession, he had large landholdings in Christchurch. His reputation was dented by a fraud conviction, and when he was subsequently elected onto the city council once more, five councillors resigned in protest.

Edward Brenchley Bishop was the fourth chairman of the Christchurch Town Council, and seven years later the sixth Mayor of Christchurch in 1872–1873. Born in Maidstone, Kent to a wealthy family, his family lived in Belgium during his childhood. He took his father's profession as a distiller and worked in London for 21 years. His sister Susannah emigrated to New Zealand in 1849 and in the following year, many Bishop siblings followed her on the Charlotte Jane, one of the First Four Ships of organised settlement of Canterbury. With his brother Frederick, he had a large farm just south of Christchurch, and the suburb of Somerfield continues to use their farm's name. The brothers were spirit merchants in the city.
John Thomas Peacock MLC JP was a New Zealand businessman, philanthropist and politician. He came to Canterbury in 1844, several years before organised settlement started.
John Charles Watts-Russell JP was a 19th-century New Zealand politician, a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council and a member of the Legislative Council. He was supposedly the wealthiest of the early settlers, and his homestead became the centre of entertainment in Christchurch. He was a significant runholder and, together with a business partner, was responsible for building up the Canterbury sheep stock.
The Lyttelton Times was the first newspaper in Canterbury, New Zealand, publishing the first edition in January 1851. It was established by the Canterbury Association as part of its planned settlement of Canterbury and developed into a liberal, at the time sometimes seen as radical, newspaper. A successor paper, The Star, is published as a free bi-weekly newspaper.
Joseph Brittan was a New Zealand surgeon, newspaper editor, and provincial councillor, was one of the dominant figures in early Christchurch. Born into a middle-class family in southern England, he followed his younger brother Guise Brittan to Christchurch, where he and his wife arrived in February 1852 with four children. Joseph Brittan soon got involved in the usual activities of early settlers and gained prominence in doing so. He had bought 100 acres on 10 July 1851 and took up 50 of this to the east of Christchurch that he converted to farmland. There, he built the family residence, and the suburb of Linwood was subsequently named after Brittan's farm and homestead of Linwood House.
Charlotte Godley was a New Zealand letter-writer and community leader.
Jane Deans was a New Zealand pioneer and community leader. She came to Christchurch in 1853 onto her husband's farm that he had established ten years earlier. Her husband died in the following year, and Deans became a community leader. The Christchurch suburb of Riccarton derives its name from the farm, and the historic buildings and the adjacent forest are popular places to visit.
Tauhinukorokio / Mount Pleasant, also known just as either Mount Pleasant or Tauhinukorokio individually, is the highest elevation in the eastern Port Hills in Christchurch, New Zealand. It once held a Māori pā, but there was little left of it when European settlers first arrived in the 1840s. The hill was first used as a sheep run, and became the base trig station for the survey of Canterbury. It was also used as a signal station to make residents aware of ships coming into Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō. During World War II, an extensive heavy anti-aircraft artillery (HAA) battery was built near the summit, and the foundations of those buildings still exist.
Richard James Strachan Harman was trained as a civil engineer. However, in Christchurch, New Zealand, he worked as a bureaucrat, politician and businessman. He was one of the Canterbury Pilgrims, having arrived in Lyttelton, on Sir George Seymour, one of the First Four Ships. He was a business partner of Edward Cephas John Stevens and senior partner of Harman and Stevens, and together they took financial control of the Christchurch newspaper The Press from its original proprietor, James FitzGerald, over a protracted period. Harman held many important roles with the Canterbury Provincial Council and was the last Deputy-Superintendent.
Henry John Le Cren was a New Zealand merchant. Born in London, he was an early settler in Lyttelton and traded both in the port town and central Christchurch. He moved to Timaru in 1858 and is regarded as one of the town's pioneers. Companies owned by him or his eldest son are predecessors to the New Zealand agricultural supply business PGG Wrightson.
Mary Townsend was an artist and an early English settler in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Sibella Mary Ross was a New Zealand schoolteacher and businesswoman. She established Ross House, a preparatory school for boys, in Christchurch in 1869.