Early life
Piper was born in 1836 at Hastings, Sussex, England. He went to sea as a youth. On the outbreak of the Crimean War joined the storeship and sailed to Malta. Once there he was transferred to the express boat ''Banshee'', and then to , thePolitics
Local body
In 1890 Piper was elected to the City Council and in April 1904 was elected mayor. He lost the mayoralty in April 1905 to Henry Baigent. He stood again in 1906 and was re-elected until 1910. In the 1910 election he was defeated by Thomas Pettit.Parliament
Joseph Shephard resigned on 15 April 1885 from the Waimea electorate when he was appointed to the Legislative Council. The resulting 1885 by-election, which was held on 3 June, was contested by six candidates: John Kerr (253 votes), W. N. Franklyn (250 votes), William White (94 votes), Christian Dencker (91 votes), W. Wastney (59 votes) and Jesse Piper (32 votes). Kerr was thus elected. Piper unsuccessfully stood for Parliament in the City of Nelson electorate on several occasions. In the , he came second againstCommunity service
Piper was a member of the Hospital Board for a time, a prominent member of the Recabite Order and interested in the temperance movement. He was a trustee of the local YMCA. Piper was a Justice of the Peace (JP). He became a member of the Nelson Charitable Aid Board in 1890. In May 1890, members of the Nelson Charitable Aid Board, including Piper, made a surprise visit to the Stoke Industrial School. The school, also called St. Mary's Orphanage, was a privately run, Roman Catholic, reform school. The inspectors found two boys locked in solitary confinement cells. This discovery and other matters lead to the tabling oDeath
Piper died at his Waimea Road residence in Nelson on 21 April 1920, aged 83, and was buried at Wakapuaka Cemetery. He was survived by his second wife.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, Jesse 1836 births 1920 deaths People from Hastings Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War English emigrants to New Zealand Mayors of Nelson, New Zealand Unsuccessful candidates in the 1884 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1887 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1896 New Zealand general election Burials at Wakapuaka Cemetery 19th-century New Zealand politicians