John Robert Godley
John Robert Godley (born May 29, 1814 in Dublin , † November 17, 1861 in London ) was an Irish statesman and administrator. Godley was the most influential leader in the founding phase of the Canterbury area of New Zealand, although he only spent two years there.
Early life
Godley was born on May 29, 1814, the eldest son of John Godley and Katherine Daly in Dublin, Ireland. He had at least two brothers, James and William Alexander. His father was a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner with property in Counties Leitrim and County Meath in Ireland. His family's fortune enabled him to be educated at Harrow School and Christ College , Oxford . He graduated in Classical Philology in 1836 . Since he was ailing, he could not pursue the desired career as a lawyer. After graduation, he toured Ireland and North America. These trips helped shape his ideas for establishing and managing colonies.
In 1843 he was appointed High Sheriff of Leitrim and the following year Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace . In September 1846 he married Charlotte , daughter of Charles Griffith-Wynne from Denbighshire . The wedding was registered in Llanrwst in Wales. Four daughters resulted from the marriage. Three reached adulthood but died unmarried. The only son was Arthur Godley .
In 1847 he was defeated in the elections to the House of Commons , in which the Leitrim constituency had two seats. Godley was one of three candidates but received strong opposition from Roman Catholic priests. They rejected his emigration project to emigrate to Canada , which he proposed as a countermeasure to the Great Famine in Ireland . Edward King Tenison and Charles Skeffington Clements beat Godley by 385 and 354 votes to 319, respectively.
Colonist in New Zealand
At that time, the owner of the New Zealand Company , Edward Gibbon Wakefield , who knew his numerous travels and ideas about colonization, asked him to establish a colony in New Zealand. These should follow the faith of the Church of England . Godley was persuaded to run this colony. Because of political connections, this made it easier to finance the colony.
Four years later, in April 1850, he and his family arrived at Port Cooper (now Lyttelton ) in April 1850. On arrival he met with the surveyor Joseph Thomas , who presented him with floor plans for three different settlements and the development plan for the existing Port Cooper settlement.
The first settlers and material to build the colony reached Port Cooper on the First Four Ships in December 1850 . For the next two years, Godley ran the colony that was now called Christchurch. He negotiated with the Canterbury Association to obtain more favorable conditions for the leased pastureland so that the colony could start with a solid agricultural base. Godley believed that the Canterbury Association's purpose was to found Canterbury, not to govern it. He said that the colony should govern itself. In November 1852, a delegation from the settlers asked Godley to stand for the first elections as superintendent of the province of Canterbury . However, Godley did not accept this proposal.
Back in England
In December 1852 Godley returned to England. At a banquet held in his honor at the Trafalgar Hotel in Greenwich , Godley gave an overview of the progress made by the new colony in the short time since it was founded. In England Godley works as a columnist and essayist for several newspapers. He mainly wrote about the colonial reform that was important to him. He also had a job with the War Office . Here he propagated the self-government of the British colonies.
Godley died in London on November 17, 1861.
A bronze statue of Godley, designed by Thomas Woolner , was erected in Cathedral Square in Christchurch in 1867 . It fell from its pedestal in the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011 .
His Lyttelton home was later demolished for the construction of a Plunket Society building in 1943. This was damaged in the 2011 earthquake and demolished in June 2012. The post holes of Godley's house were found. The archaeologists conclude from them that the two-story building had at least six rooms. A quite respectable building for the early colonization phase. There is a Grade II listed Godley House in Lyttelton, but he never lived in it.
family
Godley's only son was Arthur Godley , later Baron Kilbracken . His son, and thus Godley's grandson, was Hugh Godley, 2nd Baron Kilbracken .
His grandfather was the landowner and politician Denis Daly , his maternal uncles were James Daly, 1st Baron Dunsandle and Clanconal and Robert Daly , an uncle by marriage was Morgan George Crofton, 3rd Baronet .
A nephew, son of his brother James Godley, was AD Godley . Another nephew was the son of his brother William Alexander Godley, General Alexander Godley , the controversial commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in the First World War .
Godley's father-in-law was Charles Griffith-Wynne and his brother-in-law was Charles Wynne .
literature
- Alexander Hare McLintock : Godley, John Robert . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 ( online [accessed December 17, 2015]).
- Phillip John Wilson: Godley, Charlotte . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 ( online [accessed December 17, 2015]).
Web links
- Gerald Hensley: Godley, John Robert. In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, October 1, 2013, accessed December 18, 2015 .
- Christchurch City Libraries article on Godley
- Article on Article on John Robert Godley from 1938
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerald Hensley: Godley, John Robert. In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, October 1, 2013, accessed December 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Index entry . In: FreeBMD . ONS. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ↑ Charlotte Griffith-Wynne on thepeerage.com , accessed September 15, 2016.
- ↑ CE Carrington: John Robert Godley of Canterbury 1950, pp. 42-44 (accessed June 24, 2014).
- ^ Deputation to Mr Godley . In: Lyttelton Times , Nov 13, 1852, p. 5. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
- ^ The Canterbury Settlement . In: Lyttelton Times , Jan 7, 1854, p. 8. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
- ^ Sam Sachdeva: Historic Plunket building could go . In: The Press , May 17, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
- ^ Anna Turner: Recovering Lyttelton's Past . In: The Press , June 30, 2012, p. A13.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Godley, John Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Founder of the Canterbury Colony in New Zealand |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 29, 1814 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dublin |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 17, 1861 |
| Place of death | London |