William Munce
William Munce was my great, great, great grandfather on my mother's side. He was famous for being part of the Enderby settlement in the Auckland Islands, New Zealand.
The Auckland Islands
The Auckland Islands are part of New Zealand but are further south of Stewart Island. They were discovered in 1806 by Captain Abraham Bristow in the Ship “Ocean” which was owned by S.Enderby & Sons, the biggest shipping company in England at that time. The captain named them after Lord Auckland who was a friend of his father.
The Auckland Islands became one of the principal sealing stations of the Pacific. In 1807 ships were returning with 50-60 thousand seal skins each worth about 10 shillings a skin in London. From 1810 to 1815 the seal trade dwindled due to the continuous indiscriminate killing.
In 1830 whaling began around the Auckland Islands and Charles Enderby conceived the idea of settling the Islands and bringing out emigrants and establishing a colony, operating a whaling station and also carrying out ship repairs on the Islands. He hadn't seen the Islands and was only relying on information gathered from other seafarers.
Settling the Islands
Sir Charles Enderby was appointed governor of the islands and William was to become his private secretary. William left Sydney on the 17th July 1850 onboard the brig "Governor".
Sir Charles Enderby and a number of colonists arrived in the Auckland Islands on 4th December 1849. They established the Enderby Settlement in Erebus Cove, Port Ross at the north-eastern end of the islands.
They realised the land wasn't what they expected, nevertheless they set about building a house for Enderby and a barracks for the single men and some cottages for married families.
They had trouble growing vegetables as the cold, damp climate and acid soil wasn't suitable for cultivation. They had to rely on the Maoris for their vegetables. They also found the ships weren't calling in for repairs as they had expected and the eight whaling ships attached to the station caught very few whales.
The book called "The Auckland Islands, their eventful history" by Fergus B.McLaren published 1948 tells the story of the settlement in full detail. William's personal diary also covers his period on the Islands.
Hardwicke Settlement c.1852 - Attributed to Charles Enderby (1797-1876)
Bringing the Family Out
William sought and was given permission to bring out his family, and his wife's younger sister. Elizabeth Eleanor McKenny arrived in December 1850 with his son William and his three daughters, his other two sons followed later on.
He and Elizabeth who was born in Ceylon on 23rd August 1821, were married by Sir Charles Enderby at Port Ross on 17th December 1850, the very day she arrived. There's a family rumour that William John only took the position so he could marry Elizabeth Eleanor as it would have been illegal for him to marry his sister in law at the time in New South Wales.
Their first son George Edward Munce, my direct ancestor, was born on the Island twelve months later on 11th December 1851.
Abandoning the Islands
Back in England the Company was worried about the small returns the Company was making and in December 1851 two commissioners of the Company arrived at Port Ross. They were shocked the find Charles Enderby had spent 30,000 pounds on buildings and improvements with a return of only 3000 pounds and they decided there and then to disband the settlement. The company eventually went bankrupt.
The colony was abandoned in August 1852.