George Vesey Stewart

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George Vesey Stewart

George Vesey Stewart (born October 3, 1831 in Brighton , Sussex , England , † March 3, 1920 in Rotorua , Bay of Plenty , New Zealand ) was an Irish - New Zealand settler, colonialist, politician, founder of the New Zealand towns of Katikati and Te Puke and was elected the first mayor of the city of Tauranga in1882.

Early life

George Vesey Stewart was born on October 3, 1831, the third son of Frances Stewart , nee Vesey, and her husband Mervyn Stewart , a former Army Lieutenant, both of Martray , County Tyrone , Ulster , Northern Ireland . Since his mother was ill, the family spent a long time in mainland Europe, which shaped Stewart's childhood and schooling. In 1844 he was sent to a school in London and then went to Putney in 1848 to the College of Civil Engineers to be trained as a real estate agent. In 1852 he moved to Trinity College in Dublin , where he graduated in 1856 with a Bachelor in Classics with honors.

Northern Ireland

Based on his initial training, Stewart initially worked as an estate manager, managing various farms. But with his visionary ideas he started various projects in Northern Ireland, not all of which were successful. A factory for the manufacture of linen failed so much that he moved to New Zealand to find better ways to realize his ideas there.

New Zealand

Stewart advertised in 1873 in the Loyal Orange Order , an Orange order of which he was a member, for a settlement project in New Zealand and then traveled with the Mongol to the favored country, where he reached Port Chalmers in early 1874 . He traveled the country in search of suitable terrain for his settlement project and ended up in the area of Tauranga , where he found what he was looking for. In Auckland he later met Joseph McMullen Dargaville , a member of the Auckland Provincial Council and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Auckland . Through him, on June 24, 1874, the Secretary for Crown Lands gave him an assurance of 10,000  acres of land.

Back in Ireland, Stewart convinced members of the order and left Belfast on June 8, 1875 at Carisbrooke Castle with a total of 238 settlers, including his wife Margaret and their nine children between the ages of two and 19 years. After founding Katikati , he organized a second trip with the Lady Jocelyn in August 1878 , on which his parents and brother sailed with his wife. Between the years 1877 and 1885, Stewart published eight advertising brochures for settlement projects in New Zealand and is said to have brought around 4,000 settlers to New Zealand in a total of six ventures.

In addition to his many settlement activities, Stewart was also involved in politics and was an elected member of the Katikati Highway Board , Katikati District School Committee , Tauranga County Council , Tauranga Harbor Board and Tauranga Hospital Board . In addition, he was Justice of the Peace in County Tyrone and New Zealand.

In 1879 he bought the Bay of Plenty Times, published in Tauranga , and held it until 1887. After he could not win the election to the House of Representatives in 1881 , he devoted himself increasingly to local politics and in March 1882 became the first elected mayor of the new formed Borough of Tauranga . In 1883 Stewart was involved in planning the construction of the railroad to Tauranga . However, the project could not be carried out because of the eruption of the Tarawera volcano in 1886.

In early 1920, Stewart fell ill with bronchitis and traveled to Rotorua for treatment . He died there on March 3, 1920. He was buried in Katikati .

family

On April 17, 1856, Stewart married his first wife, Margaret Torrens Miller , in the Desertlyn Ward , Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The marriage resulted in six sons and three daughters.

After Stewart's wife Margaret left him for his many activities, he brought Alice Amelia Ellen Hagerty , also known as Alice Stein , with him from England in 1888 as his housekeeper. They married on October 11, 1917. The relationship is said to have resulted in two children, a son and a daughter even before the marriage.

Honors

literature

  • Jinty Rorke : Stewart, George Vesey . In: GH Scholefield (Ed.): Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Volume 2 , 1993 (English, online [accessed February 13, 2017]).
  • Jasmine Rebecca Rogers : A Little Corner of Ulster in New Zealand. The Katikati Special Settlement, 1875-1900 . Ed .: University of Auckland . Auckland 1998 (English, dissertation for the Master of Arts ).
  • Death of George Vesey Stewart . In: The Colonist . Volume LXII, Issue 15317 , March 4, 1920 (English, online [accessed February 13, 2017]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Rorke : Stewart, George Vesey . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . 1993.
  2. ↑ a b Rogers : A Little Corner of Ulster in New Zealand. The Katikati Special Settlement, 1875-1900 . 1998 (English).
  3. ^ Death of George Vesey Stewart . In: The Colonist . 1920 (English).
  4. ↑ a b Debbie McCauley : George Vesey Stewart (1831-1920). ket.net.nz , accessed on February 13, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ George Vesey Stewart Memorial . In: New Zealand Heritage List . New Zealand Historic Places Trust , December 17, 1993, accessed February 13, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Stewart, George Vesey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stewart, Vesey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-New Zealand settler, colonialist, politician, founder of Katikati and Te Puke and first mayor of Tauranga
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Brighton , Sussex , England
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1920
Place of death Rotorua , Bay of Plenty , New Zealand