Frederick Tuckett

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Frederick Tuckett

Frederick Tuckett (baptized February 21, 1807 in Frenchay , South Gloucestershire , near Bristol , England , † April 16, 1876 in London ) was a British civil engineer and surveyor .

Life

As the fifth child and the youngest son of a Quaker family, Tuckett attended Quaker School in Frenchay before becoming a tanner's apprentice in 1824 . In 1829 he went to the United States , where he traveled extensively. After returning to England in 1831, he studied civil engineering and later found a job in railway construction with the Great Western Railway .

On April 22, 1841, Tuckett got a job with the New Zealand Company as chief civil engineer and surveyor for the planned settlement of Nelson on the north coast of the South Island of New Zealand . For further consultation with the Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson , regarding his assignment, he arrived on September 8, 1841 in Wellington . Under the leadership of Captain Arthur Wakefield , co-founder of the New Zealand Company, Frederick Tuckett reached Tasman Bay with the first settlers on February 1, 1842 and co-founded the city of Nelson there.

From the outset, Tuckett and Wakefield disagreed on the approach to settlement and the suitability of the land. In addition, there was not enough promised usable land for the settlers. When Wakefield decided to take action against the local Ngāti Toa in order to get their fertile land on the Wairau Plain, the first armed conflict between European settlers and the Maori, known as the Wairau Tumult , became the first New Zealand war in history should come in. Wakefield was killed and Tuckett, who, as a pacifist, refused to be armed, was able to flee to Wellington. A short time later, Tuckett returned to Nelson and took Wakefield's place. Dissatisfied with the conflicts and the, in his opinion, poor work ethic of his people, Tuckett quit his job in February 1844 with the aim of returning to London.

Completely unexpectedly, however, he was offered by the New Zealand Company to find a suitable settlement area for the Scottish settlers of the Free Church of Scotland for their New Edinburgh, later Dunedin , further south. Provided that he could have a completely free hand, he finally accepted the offer and on March 31, 1844, under Captain Thomas Wing, sailed on the schooner Deborah south of the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The originally planned settlement area around today's Lyttelton port , however, was considered unsuitable by him. He sailed further south and eventually found a more suitable area around Otago Harbor .

On April 26, 1844, Tuckett anchored the Deborah in the Deborah Bay named after the ship in Otago Harbor. In July 1844 he bought 162 hectares of land, the so-called Otago Block, from the Maori and recommended the area around Otago Harbor as a suitable settlement area. When the New Zealand Company collapsed due to insolvency, he returned to Nelson on December 22, 1844, with the plan to return to England from there. In 1845 he still toured Australia and then returned to Nelson in April 1846 to put all his affairs in order. He left New Zealand forever on the Star of China on December 14, 1846.

Despite his disagreement with the goals and methods of the New Zealand Company and especially with their settlement policy, Tuckett was very attached to the settlers and supported them in Nelson with everything he could. In particular, he supported the German settlers, who with their commitment saved the settlement from bankruptcy, with loans, gifts of seeds and agricultural advice. Later from England he kept in contact with the settlers, supported the Aborigines' Protection Society (Society for the protection of the Aborigines) and other humanitarian projects and upheld his criticism of the "robbery of the natives by the colonialists of the New Zealand Company".

Frederick Tuckett settled in London on his return, spent a lot of time on further trips abroad, never married and finally died on April 16, 1876 in his adopted home, London.

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personal data
SURNAME Tuckett, Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British civil engineer and surveyor
DATE OF BIRTH baptized February 21, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterbourne , Frenchay , England
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1876
Place of death London