William Thomas Fairburn

William Thomas Fairburn (1795–1859) was a carpenter and a lay preacher or catechist for the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) in the early days of European settlement of New Zealand.

William Thomas Fairburn
Born(1795-09-03)3 September 1795
Deptford, England
Died10 January 1859(1859-01-10) (aged 63)
Auckland, New Zealand
NationalityBritish
OccupationMissionary
Spouse(s)Sarah Tuckwell (died 1843)
Elizabeth Newman (died 1847)

Early life

He was born in England in 1795, and married Sarah Tuckwell on 12 April 1819 in St Johns Church of England, Parramatta, Sydney, NSW Australia.

Missionary work in New Zealand

He and Sarah sailed on the brig General Gates to New Zealand on 27 July 1819, accompanying Samuel Marsden on his second visit to New Zealand.

In 1823, Marsden sailed on the Brampton on his fourth visit, bringing with him Henry Williams and his wife Marianne as well as Richard Davis and William Fairburn, and their respective families.[1][2][3]

In October 1833 he went with John Alexander Wilson, James Preece and John Morgan to establish a mission station at Puriri on the Waihou River.[4][5]

In 1835, Te Waharoa, the leader of the Ngāti Hauā iwi (Māori tribe) of the Matamata region, lead his warriors against neighbouring tribes to avenge the death of a relative, with the fighting, which continued into 1836, extended from Rotorua to Tauranga.[6][7]

After a house at the Rotorua mission was ransacked, both the Rotorua mission and the Matamata mission was not considered to be safe and the wives of the missionaries were escorted to Puriri and Tauranga. Fairburn and the other CMS missionaries attempted to bring peace to the belligerents.[6][7][8] In late March 1836, a war party lead by Te Waharoa arrived at Tauranga and the missionary families boarded the Columbine as a safety precaution on 31 March.[9][10]

In 1840 he was at the mission station at Maraetai, and was at the Puriri Mission in 1842.[11][12]

The "Fairburn purchase"

Between 1836 and 1839 Fairburn began moves to establish a mission station at Maraetai while attempting to purchase a vast tract of land from various iwi of Auckland. Brokered as "an act of Christian peacemaking" between warring tribes on the Auckland isthmus, Fairburn obtained "signatures" to the deed of purchase from over 30 rangatira (chiefs); few, if any of whom could read or write.

Fairburn originally estimated the total area to contain 40,000 acres (160 km2), but it was later surveyed as being around 83,000. When the purchase came under scrutiny from the CMS, in 1837 Fairburn signed a deed promising to return one third of the land to the original inhabitants (a transaction which never took place), and unsuccessfully attempted to offer another third to the Church.

Following the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi which established British sovereignty over New Zealand, Fairburn came under investigation from the new government's Land Claims Commission. Following a protracted investigation (during which time Fairburn resigned from the mission), in 1848 the Commission disallowed Fairburn's original claim, awarding him instead a much smaller grant of just under 5,500 acres (22 km2).

The remainder of the land, including Otara, was retained by the Crown as "surplus land" to be onsold to European settlers. Following the protests of Hori Te Whetuki on behalf of Ngāi Tai, in 1854 the Commission granted a "Native Reservation" of just over 6,000 acres (24 km2) at Duders Beach (Umupuia) to "the chiefs of the Ngatitai" and paid them £500 compensation, on the condition that they sign an agreement to vacate all other lands within the original purchase boundaries, and order all other iwi to do the same.

Offspring

His daughter Elizabeth married William Colenso.

References
  1. Fitzgerald, Caroline (2011). Te Wiremu: Henry Williams – Early Years in the North. Huia Publishers, New Zealand. ISBN 978-1-86969-439-5.
  2. Fitzgerald, Caroline (2004). Marianne Williams: Letters from the Bay of Islands. Penguin Books, New Zealand. ISBN 0-14-301929-5.
  3. Carleton, Hugh (1874). "Vol. I". The Life of Henry Williams. Early New Zealand Books (ENZB), University of Auckland Library.
  4. John Alexander Wilson, edited by C.J. Wilson (1889). "Missionary Life and Work in New Zealand, 1833 to 1862: Being the Private Journal of the Late Rev. John Alexander Wilson". Early New Zealand Books (NZETC). Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  5. Watson, Norton. "By way of Puriri Mission". Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 14, October 1970. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  6. Rogers, Lawrence M. (1973). Te Wiremu: A Biography of Henry Williams. Pegasus Press. pp. 113, 115, 122, 129–130.
  7. Fitzgerald, Caroline (2011). Te Wiremu: Henry Williams – Early Years in the North. Huia Publishers, New Zealand. pp. 248 & 273. ISBN 978-1-86969-439-5.
  8. Fitzgerald, Caroline (2004). "Letter of Jane Williams (23 September 1836)". Marianne Williams: Letters from the Bay of Islands. Penguin Books, New Zealand. p. 233. ISBN 0-14-301929-5.
  9. "Anne Catherine Wilson (nee Hawker) (1802-1838)". Tauranga Memories :Tauranga Local History. 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  10. John Alexander Wilson, edited by C.J. Wilson (1889). "Missionary Life and Work in New Zealand, 1833 to 1862: Being the Private Journal of the Late Rev. John Alexander Wilson". Early New Zealand Books (NZETC). Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  11. "The Church Missionary Gleaner, May 1842". Great Love of the New Zealanders for the Word of God. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  12. "The Church Missionary Gleaner, August 1843". New Zealand Mission – Extracts from Two Letters From the Bishop of New Zealand. Adam Matthew Digital. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
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