Index to Nagle and the Stirlingshire

Jeremiah William Nagle

(1801-1882)

 

Jeremiah William Nagle was born on 21^st November, 1801 in Cork, Ireland, baptized on the 25^th December at Saints Peter and Pauls parish in Cork City, and died aged 80 on 25^th January, 1882 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. His life was almost wholly connected with the sea.

 

The Nagles were one of the most powerful Catholic families to survive in an eighteenth-century Ireland blighted by land confiscations and penal laws after the fall of the Stuarts at the Battle of the Boyne. Jeremiah is descended from one of four Nagle families to settle in the Blackwater Valley of North Cork, still known today as ‘Nagle country.’ In the mid-1700s, Nagles married into the only other Gaelic Catholic group to retain its lands and influence, the gentrified society of Galway, thereby achieving power and influence unequalled by any other Catholic family in Ireland.  

 

Some then converted to Protestantism, and one of those, whose mother was a Nagle (and remained a Catholic), was Edmund Burke, the great 18^th century statesman, orator and writer on politics and philosophy, who as a child illegally attended an unlicensed ‘hedge-school’ for Gaelic Catholics in the great Nagle Castle at Monanimy. 

 

Jeremiah himself, although retaining his Catholicism, later married Catherine Holmes, a protestant of a seafaring family of Liverpool. His father, Garret Nagle, had eight children by a previous marriage, before marrying Mary Meany, his natural mother. As Catholic Gaelic gentry, they could be expected to have been well-educated and supported traditional Irish poetry, music and dance. It is thus no surprise that in a sale in Auckland of the Nagles’ household effects in early 1850 are “about 120 Volumes Books”[1] on history, ancient history, the church, and much else.

 

There is little evidence of the formative years of his career before he became a master mariner. However, a passenger on a vessel commanded by Nagle in December, 1847, William Bambridge (see page xxx) recorded in his journal a few fleeting glimpses into his early life.

 

                  “Here’s a sketch of our Captain not flattering in one particular, if I knew his history I dare say I would fill a page or two of varied information. He has been Lieut. onboard East Indiaman. Encountered the chances of a Duel which accounts for his slued aperture…… However he’s a jolly good natured gent and strives to make his passengers comfortable.”[2]

 

William Bambridge’s description of  Nagle’s ‘slued aperture’ refers to his scarred and deformed mouth, obvious in his sketch of the Captain. However, Nagle was probably pulling Bambridge’s leg, as it may not have been a duel that caused the damage. In a record kept in the family by his daughter, Susan A. Holmes[3], there appears another explanation, written in pencil on a scrap of paper: S.A.H. at the top.

                     Anecdotes - never in print

                       A Laconic letter

                   In the year 1842 Capt. Jeremiah Nagle, who had lately arrived in Auckland New Zealand from the old country, had his jaw broken by the accidental discharge of a gun. A friend in Ireland learning of the occurrence wrote the following letter of condolence -

             Dear Jerry,

                               I am sorry to hear that you have lost some of your jaw.

 

At the end of six months, there arrived a reply to the friend in Cork -

                         

            Dear Peter,

                             If I have, I don't want any of yours.

                                                   Yours faithfully Jerry Nagle

 

And in June, 1867, while giving technical evidence in a court case related to a maritime accident, Captain Nagle swore that he had been connected with nautical matters for fifty years,[4] in other words, since about the age of about fifteen in 1817. In the same breath, Nagle continued:-

 

“…never saw a wooden vessel swing her compasses; have carried half a cargo of iron from England to the East Indies, and also to the West Indies….”

 

 

It is not yet known when he moved to Liverpool, but he married Catherine Holmes[6], the daughter of Henry and Susannah (nee Adamson) Holmes, all of that city. On 3^rd April, 1835, their daughter Catherine (Kate) was born in Liverpool.

 Kate (Catherine)  Nagle

Liverpool was a crowded, bustling, dirty city with many poor, built largely on the proceeds of slavery. That trade was formally abolished in such parts of the West Indies as Bermuda and Barbados (but not in Cuba) by 1834, years after it had been abolished in Britain. It was necessary to force overseas landowners and slave-owners within the British Empire to comply by legislation and compensation. Although slaves were freed, and gained many of the rights of other citizens, in many cases they could not vote. In reality, slavery, in effect, carried on through the trade in indentured labour right up until the late 1920s.

 

There was a well-developed trade between Liverpool and the West Indies. The earliest records of ships commanded by Nagle are of those engaged in the West Indies trade in the mid-1830s.[7]

The first known is the barque Barbadian of 245 tons, belonging to the port of Liverpool, built in Liverpool in 1832 and owned by Heyes & Company. The Heyes family was strongly associated with Barbados. In 1835, the Barbadian, master Nagle, made at least one voyage from Liverpool to Barbados and back just before Christmas.[8]   

 

In 1836 Nagle is recorded as master of the Cove of the port of Liverpool. Other details of the vessel and voyage or voyages are not known. On 12^th August, of the same year, their son Jeremiah William was born in Liverpool. There is no record of his death, but he did not survive to sail with his parents to Sydney, New South Wales in early 1840.

 

Again in 1836, Nagle is recorded as master, but of the brand new Heyes, 326 tons, owned by Heyes & Company of the port of Liverpool. Multiple voyages may have been made. However, it is the final voyage in December, 1836 that anything is so far known about. The Times of Saturday, December 24^th, 1836:-

 

                    “Liverpool, … Dec 21 and 22, - sailed …the Heyes for Barbados;…” [9]

 

Shipwreck

Christmas day 1836 must have been a memorable one for Captain Nagle and his crew, for The Times of Monday 26^th December republished the following :-

 

                  “EXTENSIVE DISASTERS ON THE LIVERPOOL BANKS - It will be seen, by a reference to our shipping intelligence, that a fleet of outward-bound put to sea on Friday last, and that several fine vessels were wrecked ere they could get clear of the dangerous banks at the entrance of the Mersey. There was, it appears, a heavy sea on at the time, with the wind blowing freshly from the north-east; and the narrow channel being crowded with vessels of all sizes, several unfortunately got on the banks, where they were left by the ebbing tide. The wind continued to blow freshly throughout the night; the swell of the sea increased; and the night completed what the day had commenced. Among the vessels which will prove total wrecks are the Heyes and the Sandbach, two of the finest West Indiamen belonging to the

                  port. We are sorry to state, that two of the Sandbach’s crew were drowned. The disasters which took place on Friday and Friday night are, we believe, more numerous than any which ever occurred before, in the same space of time, to the outward-bound on the Banks. Whether they were all the result of accident, or whether some of them were not the consequence of   carelessness, remains to be seen. We have heard persons in every way capable of forming an opinion state their belief that, if more care had been exercised by the people in charge of the vessels, there would have been fewer lost. - Liverpool Albion.”[10]

 

Later, on Thursday that week, The Times of 29^th December, 1836 again mentions the Heyes :-

 

         “Liverpool….Dec 26…The Canton, bound to Jamaica has a signal of distress flying. The life- boat has gone out to her. She has her windlas broken and is in want of anchor and cable. A brig was wrecked yesterday near Dove Point; her lower masts are painted green about 4 feet above the deck. A brig was seen on West Hoyle early this morning. The cargo of the Heyes, bound to Barbados, is washing on shore near the Point of Ayr, at the mouth of the Dee,…..”[11]

     

 

From Ireland to Australia

 

Port Jackson, Sydney, New South Wales

 

The next time we glimpse the Neptune and her master is after another accident while the vessel lay at anchor some way from the shore -

 

“An accident which had nearly been attended with fatal consequences occurred off the inner point of Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair on Saturday afternoon [13^th January]. Mr. Mackay, of Darlinghurst, and Mr. Abercrombie, of the Glenmore Distillery, had been on board the ship Neptune, lying off Dawes’ Battery, and were, at the time of the accident, returning to Mr. Mackay’s residence, accompanied by Captain Nagle of the Neptune, in the ship’s cutter, with four of the seamen. When off Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, at about 100 yards distance from the land, and in the act of tacking, a sudden gust of wind caught the sails and upset the cutter, and the whole of the people on board were precipitated into the water. Mr. Mackay, who is considerably advanced in years, and was at the time in a very indifferent state of health, made towards the shore, as did several of the younger and stronger of his companions. Before he could accomplish his object his strength failed him and he sank to the bottom, where he must have perished but for the prompt aid afforded him by Captain Nagle and two of the seamen who swam to his assistance and brought him safely, though senseless, to shore. Mr. Abercrombie and two of the seamen saved themselves by clinging to the boat. The Sydney and Port Phillip Revenue cutters were both lying moored at a very short distance from the scene of the accident, but, although a man was seen walking backwards and forwards on the deck of the Prince George, and the boats belonging to each were in the water and could have been got ready at a minute’s warning, no notice was taken on board either vessel, notwithstanding the imminent peril in which the sufferers were placed. The accident was observed from the deck of the Neptune, although nearly treble the distance from the place where it occurred, and the ship’s gig was promptly dispatched to their assistance.”[18]     

 

To rub the salt into the possibly wounded pride of the revenue cutter crews, Nagle inserted a pointed advert on the front page of the Sydney Gazette, first on the 23^rd, then repeating it on 1^st February.

 

The Revenue Cutters

                  Mr. J. Nagle presents his compliments to the Captains, Officers and Seamen of the Revenue Cutters which are now at anchor off Fort Macquarie, and will feel extremely obliged to them if they will have the kindness to render some assistance to the next boat’s crew which may be upset.

                  Ship Neptune, January 14, 1838.

 

Nagle’s tendency to become involved both in accidents, and ‘sounding off’ in newspapers, becomes increasingly apparent after this time. By the 6^th February, 1838, Nagle’s agents, A.B. Smith & Company, advertised the Neptune’s projected departure for Valparaiso in Chile, via New Zealand, as being on the 8^th February[19]. It eventually got away on a showery day with south-east winds on Sunday the 11^th February with [probably cabin] passengers Mr. Willis, Mr. Peter M’Kerr, his wife and six children, along with a Captain Salmon[20], and a cargo advertised in the ‘Exports’ column of the Commercial Journal[21]  as comprising: 5 puncheons, 15 hhds [hogsheads[22]] rum, 6 hhds gin, 5 hhds, 1 pipe[23] brandy, 16 kegs 1 cask tobacco, 1 case cigars, 1 case shoes, 1 bale slops, 4 boxes glass, 2 fluke ropes, 2 blubber hooks, 4 casks tar, 2 casks salt, 15000 shingles, 3 casks ironmongery, 20 iron pots.

As was usual practice, no mention is made of how many, if any, steerage passengers may have been aboard. The winds may well have become fluky, for the Sydney Gazette next reported, with good reason, the Neptune still inside the heads -

 

 “The Neptune while going out of the heads on Monday had the pilot (Mr. Wealand’s) boat attached to her stern, and the tow-line having got foul of the keel the boat was upset. Three men were in the boat when capsized, two of whom were with much difficulty saved, but the third man was unfortunately drowned.”[24]

 

                                                       

In the meantime, an event was unfolding on Great Barrier Island, which would forever change Nagle’s and many others’ lives. A party of eight large canoe-loads of Maori warriors and their families had landed on the island, probably some time in December 1837 or January 1838, and caused much trouble to the local Maori inhabitants, including the daughter of an important chief, Horeta Te Taniwha, in the Coromandel area to whom an appeal for help was sent by canoe. A battle ensued close to 8^th February, 1838, that caused the loss of many lives on both sides, but ultimately victory for the Coromandel Maoris. As a result, the Coromandel Chief ordered that the Great Barrier Island be sold to his son-in-law William Webster and Webster's partners in the deal, Jeremiah Nagle and William Abercrombie, (then aged about 34 years old), to compensate his tribe for the losses they had suffered helping the Great Barrier Island people. A deed of sale was finalised€, just six weeks after the battle, on 20^th March, 1838. Since Nagle was gone from Australia and had left the Bay of Islands a few days before this date, it seems reasonable to suppose he signed it at Coromandel. (see Baldwin's evidence below where he says he was with Captain Nagle when the Great Barrier Island was bought.-dja).

 

Bay of Islands

The Neptune dropped anchor at the Bay of Islands on 3^rd March, 1838. A forest of masts surrounded the barque from the numerous whaling ships gathered there.[25] One of them, the French whaler Jean Bart, was just weeks later wrecked at the Chatham Islands, its crew massacred by Maori and several reportedly eaten[26]. Some idea of the scene ashore at the Bay of Islands can be gotten from excerpts from the log[27] of another whaling ship, the Samuel Robertson, a month after the Neptune arrived.

 

        Monday April 2^nd Commences with fine still pleasant weather the ship surrounded with

                              Natives and crew loaded with potatoes, peaches, melons, grapes, fish hogs

                              etc etc for traffic also women, the former of which they readily disposed of

                              for tobacco clothes etc to the crew…

          Thursday 5^th April Starboard watch ashore on liberty. Went to the Parr. [sic] Enjoyed the

                                 day very agreeably in cruising about among the Natives & observing their  

                              manners and customs.

          Saturday 7^th April, ….employed getting on shore water casks….some little disturbance on 

                             board in the evening among some of the men as it all originated in Grog, so it

                             ends with the effects of grog.

          Thursday 10^th April, Spent the day very agreeably in looking about the country as far as it

                             is possible to travel which is but a short distance. Started in the morning with

                             the Cooper & cruised in company with him all day happily by so doing kept

                             out of all quarrels & difficulties to which we might have been exposed by

                             joining with the larger company who just at night got into an affray with a

                             parcel of beachcombers but got clear with little damage at 7 returned on

                             board Crew fitting for sea. 

 

          Continuing on, the track would naturally take the barque through the Colville Channel before heading generally south-eastwards, possibly passing in sight of East Cape, and on until they were securely in the zone of prevailing westerlies between 40 and more than 50 degrees of south latitude. That vast stretch of the South Pacific is free of any islands, though not the occasional icebergs, until close to South America.  

The diversion to Valparaiso added several months to a voyage that would otherwise average say 120 days. The Neptune arrived back in England sometime before early August of 1838.

 

On his return, he found that he had another daughter, Mary, just months old, and who would not see her second birthday. But that was in the future. Nagle had news for his wife Catherine. He had bought an island, and other property in New Zealand at Coromandel. Their life from then until they left in the new year was directed to organizing for a new life as settlers in New Zealand.

 

Voyage of the Bounty Ship ‘Thomas Lowrie’ from Liverpool to Sydney

On a mid-winter’s day, the 7th January, in Liverpool a fortnight after Christmas, 1839, Jeremiah Nagle, his wife Catherine, and daughter Kate, farewelled friends and extended family and boarded the barque Thomas Lowrie for the voyage to Port Jackson at Sydney, New South Wales. As far as is known, neither of the adult Nagles was ever to return again. Jeremiah was 37, Catherine 28, Kate almost 5 years old. Kate’s younger siblings Jeremiah and Mary had both died in infancy.

 

January was a common time of the year to depart England for the colonies in the South Pacific. It shortened the voyage by the stronger winds encountered, and allowed the emigrants to arrive in the southern hemisphere autumn with plenty of time to acclimatise to the warmer weather. The voyage time of 128 days, including a short stop at the Cape of Good Hope on the 29^th March, 1840, was unremarkable, as was the size of the barque, 409 tons, with its 23 crew. By the time they arrived at Capetown, South Africa, they had been 81 days at sea. The Nagle family were three of nine cabin, or ‘first class’ passengers, and as such, were given preferential treatment in all sorts of ways. For instance, the milk from the cow often taken on such emigrant ships was reserved mainly for the table of the cabin passengers, as were live animals such as pigs, ducks and chickens, along with their eggs. The other two classes of passenger, unlike the Nagles, were all ‘bounty’ emigrants, comprised of nine ‘intermediate’ and 105 ‘steerage’ passengers. The bounty agent for this voyage was A.B. Smith & Company, the same bounty agent as organised the human cargo of the convict ship Neptune  Nagle had commanded in 1837-8.

 

From ‘the Cape’, as the Cape of Good Hope was usually referred to, it was usual practice to track generally south-eastward to pick up the prevailing westerlies that blow robustly around the globe in a roughly 600 nautical mile band between latitudes 40° and 50° South; - aptly known as ‘the roaring forties’.

 

The Port Jackson Health Officer’s Report signed by the Nagles’ fellow cabin passenger, the ship’s surgeon Doctor Wilson Ramsay, records a voyage free of contagious or infectious disease, the death from dropsy of two children, some sea-sickness and trifling colds. The ship’s passengers and crew arrived in good health. However, the passenger list shows a contributing reason as to why this might be so, - the passengers were all under the age of forty.[29] The average age of the married couples was about 27, their children 4, and around 20 for the single passengers. No information is so far extant regarding the 23 crew. At 38, Captain Nagle was the oldest passenger on board. 

 

Somewhere off the Australian coast on 5^th May, 1840, eleven days before arriving at Port Jackson, Catherine Nagle gave birth to their fourth child. On 16^th May, 1840 the barque entered port.

 

Port Jackson, Sydney

The family then stayed with the brothers William and Charles Abercrombie and Charles’ wife at William’s leased home called ‘Glenmore’. Adjacent to the home and on the same property, William and a partner, John MacKay, had leased[30] and ran a distillery since 1836.

 

The distillery building of stone and having three floors was located roughly where the middle block of home units stands today at the bottom of Elizabeth Street, Paddington - refer Oxford Walk for details of the grant. Buildings to the east included a granary (store) and water mill for crushing the grain. The latter drew water from a dam on Glenmore Brook

 

Three weeks after landing, Catholic records show the child was baptised Susanah Abercrombie Nagle on 2^nd June. Susanah was named after her maternal grandmother Susanah Holmes. The same record notes that Nagle was an ‘intending settler in New Zealand’.   

The Captain and the Abercrombie brothers had much to think about, discuss and organise to capitalise on the investments they had already made in New Zealand, while adapting to the changed political situation. Sovereignty had by then passed to the British Crown with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on the 6^th February, 1840 at the Bay of Islands. The seat of Government or capital was established at Kororareka at the Bay of Islands under the Lieutenant-Governorship of Captain William Hobson.

 

 

To the Bay of Islands, New Zealand

One of the most well-known and respected businessmen based in Sydney at this time was Ranulph Dacre, who owned a wharf and several vessels including the 298 ton barque Diana. Six weeks after landing in Sydney, the Nagle family boarded the Diana under the command of Captain Robert Milne, in Sydney Cove,[31] departing on what proved to be rather a slow and possibly uncomfortable voyage, for the Bay of Islands on 27^th June, 1840. They traveled as cabin passengers with their two servants, Mary and Duncan. Several of the other twenty cabin passengers would become close acquaintances in the coming years[32]. There were a further twenty passengers in steerage. Severe gales off the Northland coast in mid-June had almost wrecked the 245 ton brig Bolina. Another ship, the 500 ton barque, Bengal Merchant, had arrived at the ‘Bay’ on the 15^th June and her master, Captain John Hemery, had written to his mother[33] -

 

                  “I am at last arrived in this bay and very glad to take refuge from the gales which are now increased on the coast.”

 

The Diana seems to have crossed the Tasman sea without incident however; dropping anchor in the Bay of Islands on 11^th July, 1840. At least fourteen other vessels, including half a dozen whalers, several merchantmen, H.M.S. Britomart, (a brig of 10 guns), H.M.S. Herald, and the 50-gun French man-o-war L’Aube were either anchored nearby off the beach at Kororareka or had arrived the same day.[34] One vessel, the cutter Ranger, arriving that day from the firth of Thames via the Waitemata Harbour, had on board the Lieutenant-Governor himself, Captain Hobson, having very recently satisfied himself as to the location of the new capital he would shortly name Auckland, and which the Maories would come to know as Akarana in their language.

 

One of the first matters the Nagles become acquainted with, either by Nagle’s partner in the Great Barrier Island, William Webster himself, or simply by reading the local newspaper, was Webster’s involvement in an alleged robbery on 3^rd June last.

 

                  Kororarika Police Report

                        Thursday, 3^rd June, 1840

                  William Webster was brought before John Johnston, Esq., J.P., charged by Mr. Hector with robbing his schooner of about 15 lbs of tobacco, some check shirts, and three bottles rum. A native woman, in whose hut part of the tobacco was found, stated, that Webster had entered her hut, with two more men, with his pockets filled with tobacco, and had given her about 2 lbs., and that he had two bottles in his hand which she thought was filled with rum. Mr. Williamson swore to having sold Mr. Hector some tobacco a few days previously, and that the tobacco found was part of the same. Some tobacco was also found in Mr. Webster’s box corresponding with the other. The prisoner was remanded for the apprehension of the other two men.

                  Since that time, Thomas Bull, another of the parties implicated, has been apprehended.

                        Saturday, June 13, 1840

                  William Webster was again brought up for examination, but allowed to turn Queen’s evidence against the second prisoner , Bull.

                  Aipari, the Native woman, proved to Bull’s having been in her hut with Webster and Burns, and to having some of the tobacco in his possession. The evidence of Webster was given with so much prevarication, that he was remanded on that charge.

                  Bull was committed for trial for the robbery.

                  A court was held yesterday, the particulars which we may find in our next.[35]

 

Two days before the Diana’s arrival at the ‘Bay’, the local newspaper printed comment and quotes from a journal and letter that seems highly likely to have been sent to it by Nagle in Sydney:-

 

                 We have been kindly favoured with a sight of the first number of a paper published in London under the title of ‘The New Zealand Journal.’ On the first page is a map of these Islands. The object of this publication is to throw open all intelligence respecting this country, and Australasia in general, for the British public. We are glad of this means of extending the benefit of our own labours. From this paper we learn that the following societies have been formed to promote Emigration to this quarter: - “The Plymouth Company of New Zealand, the New Zealand Committee for the West of Scotland, the Paisley New Zealand Emigration Society, the Scots New Zealand Land Company, and the New Zealand Committee of Ireland.”

                                                             ---------

                  Captain J. Nagle of the New Zealand Company’s Office recently wrote to Lord Durham a letter containing, among others, the following question:- “In the event of British Authority being established in New Zealand, will there be any disturbance of the tenures of land lawfully and fairly acquired from the Natives?”

                  The following answer was received to this enquiry:- “The Directors of this Company have the EXPRESS ASSURANCE of Her Majesty’s government, that all bona fide titles of British Subjects to land acquired from the Natives, will not be disturbed by any proceeding which may be instituted on the part of the crown.”[36]

 

Lord Durham, otherwise known as xxx xxx, was the titular head of the New Zealand Company, which was busy with land acquisition and immigration in the Nelson region, (though ultimately it would fail). However, the newspaper did not quite understand the connection, and later printed a correction, for Nagle had nothing whatever to do with the New Zealand Company; rather, Lord Durham had a Nagle or two in his extended family and, also, presumably, Nagle wrote to him as an informed source of information regarding the question he asked. The newspaper’s report on Nagle’s letter and Durham’s reply provoked an urgent response; for it was a question many Europeans had an interest in, not least Nagle and his partners in the Great Barrier Island and other property at Coromandel. It is interesting that Nagle, had, while in England, taken the trouble to arm himself with the assurance given by Lord Durham regarding land bought by Europeans off the Maories. 

           

At least one of Nagle’s partners in the Great Barrier Island purchase, William Webster, and one of the Abercrombie brothers, most probably Peter Abercrombie, the brother of the other partner, William Abercrombie, was in the Bay at this time. They were both listed in the newspaper, just a few days before Nagle arrived, as donors and annual subscribers to the fund to build a hospital for the Bay of Islands[37].

 

If there was any doubt as to Nagle’s hand in the matter, a letter appeared in the paper on 16^th July that was replied to in the same issue:-

 

                  To the Editor of the New Zealand Advertiser & Bay of Islands Gazette”

                  Sir: - In common with many of your Readers I have been surprised and disappointed by your silence upon a subject of such vital importance to this community as the question of land claims now in agitation at Sydney. Permit me to remind you, that the duty of the Press is not confined to the publication of the mere domestic news of the day, but that it may be considered to have betrayed the public whose organ it is, or ought to be, when it permits its best interests to be overwhelmed by the oppression of Govt., without exerting its energies in their defense.

                  Whilst a Bill is before the Council of New South Wales, in which it is sweepingly declared that all the purchases of land which have been made in this country at so great risk of property and even of life, on the faith of a solemn declaration of its independence by the British Government, are illegal, when that solemn recognition of the independence of New Zealand is denied, and tortured into a “tacit admission of it, sub silentio,” and when it is proposed on the assumption of this illegality (which, by the way, is ably and strenuously denied by two of the most able Barristers in Sydney) to strip Englishmen of their possessions and confiscate them to the Crown by the unjust and unconstitutional means of its own Commissioners, it certainly behoves the voice of the people to make itself heard.

                        I am, Sir, yours &c,

                        An Intending Settler.

 

               

                  Kororarika July 16, 1840

                  In another column will be found a letter from “an intending Settler” on the Land question, which we insert chiefly for two reasons - first, to shew that we are not unready, whenever it is necessary, to enter on important public questions - and, secondly, to furnish us with a text for some remarks on the subject, which our Readers may understand. It is decidedly necessary that a public Journal should be open to temperately written communications. We beg our correspondent to excuse our not publishing his postscript, which has struck us as more like a question addressed to ourselves than as a suitable remark for the public eye at present.

                        We will preface what we have to say by observing, that our correspondent is mistaken if he supposes we have not been alive to the Land Question, or that we have intended to evade it altogether. Our defence is simply this - It appears to us in the present stage of affairs of this Colony, scarcely able to judge accurately of this question, and we are not disposed to hazard the doing of any party unnecessary injustice. Audi alterum partem is a maxim of which we feel the force, and the fear of violating it has thus far kept us silent. We are full well aware that the difficulties which beset the constitutional colonization of this country are exceedingly great, and we are disposed  to admit that parties who legislate respecting it  - parties, too, who have no apparent inducement to act unjustly in the matter, will keep as far from designedly or undesignedly injuring any person, as possible. There must be decided evidence of obliquity in their intentions before we shall feel safe to impeach them. It is true that, inadvertently, they may err, but in this case we can point out their error without any impeachment of their integrity.

                        Our correspondent is rather too vague on one or two points. What Government does he think to blame? Is it that established here: or that of Sydney, or the British Government of which he thinks it right to complain. We do not suppose it is the first, because he must be aware that His Excellency has nothing to do in this matter but to execute the decrees put into his hands. With regard to the measures or intentions of the Sydney Legislature, it remains to be seen what they will do, but we acknowledge our indisposition at present to think that any injustice is intended, or will be eventually felt. Moreover, they can scarcely legislate but in accordance with instructions from home, and, therefore, the chief part of whatever blame may arise must rest with the Home Government. But the instructions to His Excellency, which we this day commence to publish, bear no appearance of unjust intention. What the action may be is yet to be seen - we can prove nothing from the plot.

                        We have persuaded ourselves that all will ultimately be well. Our conviction is strong that those whose interests are temporarily deranged will be glad of the transition from insecure New Zealandic usage, to that of competent British Authority. Of course the demonstration is in the hands of time. Will our Readers with us wait to see its issue?

                  Our Sydney contemporaries argue the subject at length, and, as might be expected, in various ways. Our limits will not permit us to fall into the error of prolixity. The resumption of all lands by the crown is indispensable to impartiality; but it does not follow that parties who before held lands of independent Chiefs, will certainly have their possessions taken away when these Chiefs sign away their independence. We feel assured that this change will not, of itself, involve any such consequences, and if not, no one can justly complain of it. There are claims, doubtless, which will be overthrown by the transition, but they are such as will not stand in the court either of public morality or of conscience.

                        There are other points involved in our correspondent’s letter, which demand notice. The term ‘illegal’ is not happily chosen to express the circumstances to which he refers, but we must defer our views on this point to our next, when we may touch on one or two other bearings of this great subject.[38]

 

As if to relieve the tensions implicit in the debate over land issues, the following Sunday, 19^th July, numerous seamen, released from their lengthy stretches at sea and shipboard discipline, were free ashore. This, and the presence of the numerous grog-shops, combined to overwhelm public order on the beach at Kororarika, giving the month-old newspaper The New Zealand Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette plenty to report on the resulting riots.

 

                  “Last Sunday, our attention was called to an unusual derangement of public order on various parts of the Beach. On one side a considerable party of French sailors were making use of their liberty in such a manner , as most seriously to annoy the more quiet and orderly part of the inhabitants. On the other side we observed Englishmen fighting, - and even the Mauries were excited to take some part, we know not what, in the contest.”[39] 

 

In an issue of the newspaper a week later, Captains of both H.M.S. Britomart and L’Aube denied their sailors had anything to do with it; which, in the great scheme of things, is probably what any good captain will do in the circumstance, the act gaining for him, at no cost, much loyalty from the crew and a large measure of good humour to start the next voyage with.[40]

 

The editor of the newspaper had promised further comment on ‘Intending Settler’s’ letter, and it came on the same day and issue as Captain Robert Milne was dealing with his perhaps more mundane maritime matters. An advertisement appeared on the front page of the newspaper on the 23^rd July advising of the availability of freight and passenger accommodation on the Diana to the Thames. The paper’s ‘shipping intelligence’ column also advised its readers of the expectation of the vessel’s immediate departure.

 

                                          For Coromandel Harbour River Thames

                                          The Packet Ship Diana burthen 298 tons

                                          Captain Robert Milne- has superior cabins

                                          and steerage accommodation for passengers.

                                          For freight or passage apply to the Captain

                                          on board, to Gilbert Mair Esq., Waihapu

                                          or to W.Wilson[41]

 

                                          Departures immediately expected - the Diana

                                          for the Thames with passengers.[42]

   

                  Kororarika: July 23, 1840.

                  We promised a few words last week on one or two points in connection with the Land Questions, introduced by our correspondent “an Intending Settler.” It is said that Government assumes the previous purchase of land to have been illegal, and that the illegality is denied by two eminent Barristers of Sydney. Now, the term “illegal” does not appear to be the proper word to express the actual state of the case. It supposes the existence of a Law when a thing is contrary to it. The illegality of any point in the British application of the word, would imply the presence of British Law. Now this there was not when the purchases were made - the custom of the country or the Power of the Chiefs or Tribes was the only Law. If the purchases were made in accordance with established or recognized practice, they were legal at the time, and must continue so till a different law intervenes. But legality is not always right, especially where laws regarding property are are not of such a nature as to secure parties against injustice on every side. In the present case the very supposition that the British Government felt it necessary to interpose by the establishment of its own authority, implies that they perceived that strict justice could not be done to all parties on any other ground. If, then, the parties who occupy the land, being British subjects, resist the establishment of the British authority, or oppose it when established, by refusing to hold their lands from the Crown, their purchase and possession becomes illegal; and when the Crown resumes the lands, if parties purchase lands irrespective of that resumption, their purchase is illegal: but not otherwise. The resumption of lands on the part of the Crown is professedly intended to bring all Europeans under British control, for the simple purpose of doing justice both to the Natives and all other parties. If the Crown maintains that resumption, it must become the source of all titles; and whatever titles are not traceable to this centre must be illegal. In many instances the very same lands may be held and enjoyed by the very same persons, but then tenure will be different, and if they take care to have the right tenure established, their possession will be as legal as it now is. The resumption of the lands does not imply the deprivation of the occupiers of the use, but only of its sovereignty. If any possession be found to be contrary to the principle of equity, such possession will be not merely declared to be, but will be rendered illegal, by the refusal on the part of the recognized authorities to confirm the title.

                  But in other cases there may be, as far as the NECESSITY of the case is concerned, no dispossession, and no presumed illegality at all.

                  It is contended by some of our contemporaries at Sydney, that Englishmen cannot constitutionally colonize savage countries, without the sanction of the Government. Of course, if this opinion be correct, it implies illegality. But we own we neither ourselves see that this option is strictly demonstrable, nor do we think that this is the exact ground on which the British Government professes to colonize the country. The constitution is rather an indefinite thing where its limits are not expressly marked by statutes. We hold the right of the British Government to interpose its authority wherever its subjects choose to place themselves in such countries as have not already the proper guardianship of express Laws, and when it does interpose, those subjects are bound to yield submission, but we do not think it is maintained on the part of the Government, that the purchase of land is illegal previous to the establishment of its authority.

                  The claim which is set up by the Government on “the grounds of discovery” may, indeed, be construed to imply the illegality supposed, but that claim is not urged with regard to the Northern Island, as some of the Sydney papers erroneously infer from the Proclamation. The NORTHERN Island is claimed from the cession of the Natives, and, therefore, British authority did not extend here till that cession was effected.

                  We have now stated what our opinion is of this difficult matter in a legal or constitutional point of view. Another time we shall state our sentiments with regard to the moral aspect of the matter, and also with regard to what, under all the circumstances, may be most expedient and just.

 

By the following day, Friday, 24^th July, the weather deteriorated sufficiently for the departure to be delayed. In fact, the wind, easterly, veering to the south-east, increased over the next three days, to such an extent that it caused the wreck of the recently-arrived 589 ton ship H.M.S. Buffalo, then anchored off Cook’s Beach near Mercury Bay on the exposed eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula. By the 27th July, huge easterly swells had developed. Extracts from the vessel’s log of Tuesday the 28^th, on the morning of the wreck, suggest a desperate struggle in pitch-darkness, storm-force winds, driving rain and sea-spray, before grounding in the breakers on what is now known as Buffalo Beach off the modern town of Whitianga.

 

Winds - Easterly

A.M.  -  Fresh gales and hard squalls with a heavy sea

1.30   -   A heavy gust of wind. ……

4.00  -   Heavy gales with rain and heavy seas……

             Another heavy gust of wind approaching to a hurricane.

6.30  -  ….The ship struck and carried away the pintle of the rudder after driving upward of    

             two miles. Hoisted the distress signals and cast loose a gun…

7.30      Barely daylight, the ship striking heavily….

 

It should be remembered that additional challenges for the crew, two of whom drowned, would have been the wind-chill and low mid-winter temperature of the seawater. Many of the ship’s crew were down the coast at Tairua to extract spars from the forest at the time of the wreck, leaving the Buffalo substantially under-manned.

 

A minor matter Nagle became involved in before he left the Bay was his agreement to become the postmaster at Coromandel. This he did with the support of the Postmaster at Russel, W.C. Hayes, who not only recommended the opening of a Post Office at Coromandel, but nominated Nagle for the job. The paperwork seems to have been disposed of on the day of his departure from the Bay.

 

1. August 1840

The Postmaster                                           Unreadable  3 words?

Recommendation of W. Nagle                                                   31 July 1840

to take charge of the Letters at

Coromandel Harbour.

                      Sir,

                          As it is necessary for the communication at present existing between this place and the Thames to have some responsible person resident there to take charge of such letters as may be addressed there I have the honour to state that Capt. Nagle who presently is a settler of Coromandel Harbour has agreed to take charge of and be responsible for the postage on all letters addressed to him for distribution and as Capt. Nagle is a respectable man I beg to request that His Excellency may be pleased to sanction such an agreement. The enclosed agreement to that effect is signed by Capt. Nagle.

                                               I have the honour to be Sir

                                                                 Your most obdt. Servt.

                                                                 (signed) W C Hayes   Postmaster

                  The Colonial Secretary

                  A. ?

                  Russel

.

 

[In left margin of the letter is written “Approved on Mr Grimstones[43] recommendation, W. Hobson 4 August and in another hand, ‘The Postmaster, unreadable 2-3 words, -7 August 1840]

              

                 Kororarika 31 July 1840

I hereby undertake and promise to be responsible for and deliver any or all letters forwarded to me for distribution to any parties residing at Coromandel Harbour and to be accountable for all postage chargeable on the same.

                                                                                                      (Signed) J. Nagle

                                     Witness  W.C. Hayes  Postmaster

                                     P      Sam. McCook

   

                  The Gazette

                  Colonial Secretary’s Office

                  Russell, 1^st Sept., 1840

                  His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to appoint Mr.   Samuel Edward Grimstone to take charge of the Department of the Post Office in this Colony, until further notice.

                  With reference to the subject, His Excellency has directed that the Names of the Deputy Post Masters at the various stations, and of the Gentlemen who have consented to receive the letters for their respective districts, to be notified for general information:- ……..      

                  Coromandel Harbour    Captain Nagle ……[44]

The Diana eventually departed the Bay of Islands on Saturday, 1^st of August[45]. There being no known passenger list of the voyage, at least some of the travelers are possible to guess at. The Nagle family and two servants, along with William Webster and Peter Abercrombie. Nor is there so far any evidence as to the date of the Diana’s arrival at Coromandel harbour. However, the ship had delivered its passengers at least by the 5^th August.                                                                                          

Webster’s, by then, famous trading store or ‘wharehoko’ at Herekino Bay on Wanganui Island,, was the ‘grand central station’ of his extensive enterprises, and the location of the Coromandel Post office.

The record of postal transactions confirms that the job was but a trifling minor occupation.  Postage varied between 4 pence and 8 pence per half-ounce. In fact the total revenue over the five months of the Post Office’s existence came to just 2 pounds 15 shillings and 10 pence. Most correspondence went informally.

 

Almost immediately after the Nagles had arrived at Herekino, a message sent overland on 4^th August, arrived from the commander of H.M.S. Buffalo, James Wood, which prompted Nagle to write urgently to Governor Hobson on 5^th August.

It was 13^th August before the Bay of Island’s newspaper published an extract from Wood’s letter: -

 

        Extract from a letter dated Mercury Bay, 

        4^thAugust, from James Wood, Esq., 

        Commander of H.M.S. Buffalo: -

        “Sir, - It is with great concern that I

        acquaint you with the total wreck of

        H.M.S. Buffalo, by driving on shore

        here in a dreadful gale of wind on the

        morning of the 28^th ult. Fortunately

        all hands are saved except one man

        and a boy drowned - Charles Moore

        & John Cairns.”

 

Descendants of Jeremiah William Nagle

 

JEREMIAH WILLIAM  NAGLE was born November 21, 1801 in Cork, Ireland, and died January 05, 1882 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada..  He married CATHERINE HOLMES Bef. July 1834, daughter of HENRY HOLMES and SUSANNA ADAMSON.  She was born June 1811 in Liverpool, England, and died April 14, 1886 in East Oakland, California, USA..

       

Children of JEREMIAH NAGLE and CATHERINE HOLMES are:

                   2    JEREMIAH WILLIAM NAGLE, b. August 1836, Saint Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire, England.; d. Bef. 1840, Liverpool, England.

                   3    MARY NAGLE, b. Bef. June 1838, Liverpool, England; d. Bef. 1840, Liverpool, England.

                   9    ELINOR JOSEPHINE NAGLE, b. 1853, San Francisco, California, USA.; d. 1925, Napa County, California, USA..

                 10    EDWARD ROBERT CAMPBELL NAGLE, b. 1855, Oakland, California, USA.; d. 1908, Lakeport, Lake County, California, USA..

 

 

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