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Tuesday, 4 - Wednesday, 26 August 2026

Interesting & Rare 1849 & Later Letters By William & John Deans to the Canterbury Papers

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Interesting & Rare 1849 & Later Letters By William & John Deans to the Canterbury Papers The former an 8 page letter written on 6, headed, Letter written in 1849 by William & John Deans & published in the Canterbury Papers previous to thew first of the Pilgrim Ships leaving England, chiefly describing the suitability of the NZ land etc to farming, which begins with William describing the seasons and the weather, the planting of crops and using comparisons with England, Van Diemens Land and Australia, with the Canterbury Plains, Waimakariri mentioned, also advising the implements, animals, livestock, seeds etc that should be brought out by Settlers from England, he goes on to mention his travels including repeated visits to the Wairarapa, traversing the country from Port Nicholson to Taranaki and around the whole of the East Coast, going on to mention his considerable experience in England as farmers and for the last 9 years in NZ, and adds "can with some confidence congratulate you on being able to secure this district as the site for the Canterbury Settlement, excepting the Taranaki District which is without a harbour inundated with natives & already occupied by the New Plymouth Settlement, I do not think you could secure a suitable district elsewhere in the Company's territory. The later letter is a 16 page of memos of a few events relating to the Pioneer Colonisation of the Canterbury Plains as requested by Mr Murphy Secretary of Canterbury Agriculture & Pastoral Association, and dated 1882. A wonderful and rare insight into the early days of pioneering and settlement in New Zealand. William and John Deans were the first and third of four sons of John Deans, a notary and his wife Catherine Young and were born in the parish of Kirkstyle, Riccarton in Ayrshire in Scotland (the suburb in Christchurch was named after it). William bought land orders in the Wellington Scheme in 1839 and sailed from London in one of the earliest company ships, the Aurora in September the same year, arriving at Port Nicholson (Wellington) on the 22nd cof January, 1840. On December 3rd, 1840 William & John Deans signed a 21 year lease for the land running 6 miles in every direction from Putaringamotu and their property included the rivers Waimairi (or Waimaira), Wairarapa and Otakaro. William drowned when his ship the Maria was wrecked near Cape Terawhiti on 23rd July, 1851, shortly after John returned to Scotland and married Jane McIlwraith, they returned to NZ shortly after, however John's health declined and he died at Riccarton on 23rd June, 1854, tragically not so long after his brother. The Lyttelton Times declared that the names of the Deans brothers should always occupy a place in the history of Canterbury.