William Henry Valpy Jr. (8 January 1832 – 19 January 1911) was one of the earliest settlers of

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, a province in the south of New Zealand. Valpy was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

. His father,

William Henry Valpy William Henry Valpy (2 January 1793 – 25 September 1852) was a noted early settler of Dunedin, New Zealand. He is sometimes referred to locally as "The father of Saint Clair", as he was the first settler in the area now occupied by the subu ...

, was a Magistrate & Collector for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

. His mother was

Caroline Valpy Caroline Penelope Valpy (née Jeffreys; 1804 – 30 October 1884) was a British-New Zealand artist. Biography Caroline Valpy was born Caroline Penelope Jeffreys in Kanpur, India in 1804 to Reverend Richard Jeffreys, chaplain to the East India ...

(née Jeffreys), a sister of

Julius Jeffreys Julius Jeffreys (1800–1877) was a British surgeon and writer, was the inventor of the respirator, and was a pioneer in the development of early air conditioning systems. Early life Julius Jeffreys was born on 14 September 1800 at Hall Place, ...

. Due to his father's precarious health, the family emigrated to New Zealand, where they arrived at

Port Chalmers Port Chalmers is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre. History Early Māori settlement The orig ...

by the ship ''Ajax'' on 8 January 1849. Prior to the family leaving England in 1847, Valpy Sr. had purchased land at the second or third balloting in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

under the

Otago Association The Otago Association was founded in 1845 by adherents of the Free Church of Scotland with the purpose of establishing a colony of like-minded Scots in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand, chiefly at Dunedin. In addition to religion, the econ ...

. The family first settled at "The Forbury" by the Ocean Beach, now known as St Clair. Valpy Jr. was placed in charge of a sheep run at

Waihola The township of Waihola lies between Dunedin and Milton, New Zealand in Otago, in New Zealand's South Island. It lies close to the southeast shore of the shallow tidal lake which shares its name. The town is located on State Highway 1, and th ...

. In 1852, Valpy Jr. shipped the first fat stock sent by sea from Otago to

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

. After several weeks in Lyttelton, he and two shepherds returned to Otago on horseback in a 12-day journey, the first people to accomplish such a feat. His report to

John Robert Godley John Robert Godley (29 May 1814 – 17 November 1861) was an Anglo-Irish statesman and bureaucrat. Godley is considered to be the founder of Canterbury, New Zealand, although he lived there for only two years. Early life Godley was born in Dubl ...

of the feasibility of such an overland journey was published in the ''

Lyttelton Times The ''Lyttelton Times'' was the first newspaper in Canterbury, New Zealand, publishing the first edition in January 1851. It was established by the Canterbury Association as part of its planned settlement of Canterbury and developed into a liber ...

''. During the same year Valpy Jr. moved to the Horseshoe Bush run, at the head of

Lake Waihola Lake Waihola is a 640 ha tidal freshwater lake located 15 km north of Milton in Otago, in New Zealand's South Island. Its area is some 9 square kilometres, with a maximum length of 6 kilometres and a mean depth of 0.75m. It is the larger ...

, and in 1854, he took up the Maerewhenua station, in the

Waitaki District Waitaki District is a territorial authority district that is located in the Canterbury and Otago regions of the South Island of New Zealand. It straddles the traditional border between the two regions, the Waitaki River, and its seat is Oama ...

in North Otago, and in 1856, purchased the

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the ra ...

and Upper Taipo runs. Due to a severe accident, he was forced to sell his properties. Valpy Jr. then took up the Patearoa run, in the Upper Taieri, but sold it in 1860 to Dr. Buchanan. After that Valpy Jr. lived in retirement until 1874, when he was appointed Crown lands ranger for the northern portion of Otago, but retired from the position in 1888, when he and his family took up two runs at the head of

Lake Wakatipu Lake Wakatipu ( mi, Whakatipu Waimāori) is an inland lake ( finger lake) in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the southwest corner of the Otago region, near its boundary with Southland. ''Lake Wakatipu'' comes from the original Māori ...

. They afterwards sold these properties. In the early 1860s, Valpy Jr. was made a justice of the peace, and he acted as

Sergeant-at-Arms A serjeant-at-arms, or sergeant-at-arms, is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin ''serviens'', which means "servant". Historically, ...

in the

Otago Provincial Council The Otago Province was a province of New Zealand until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. The capital of the province was Dunedin. Southland Province split from Otago in 1861, but became part of the province again in 1870. Area an ...

, during the time that

Julius Vogel Sir Julius Vogel (24 February 1835 – 12 March 1899) was the eighth premier of New Zealand. His administration is best remembered for the issuing of bonds to fund railway construction and other public works. He was the first Jewish prime mi ...

was Provincial Treasurer. Valpy married in 1858 to Penelope Caroline Every, the daughter of Simon Frederick Every, of Silver Acres,

Andersons Bay Andersons Bay (sometimes spelt in the grammatically correct former form Anderson's Bay, and often known locally simply as "Andy Bay") is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located in the southeast of the city's urban area, sout ...

, Dunedin. His wife was a descendant of the

Every baronets The Every Baronetcy, of Egginton in the County of Derby, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 26 May 1641 for Simon Every, Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1640 and a supporter of the Royalist cause in the Civil ...

. They had five sons and three daughters. His last residence was Kohimarama near Glenorchy at the head of Lake Wakatipu. He died on 19 January 1911 while he stayed at his son James' place in Oamaru; he had turned 79 only a few days earlier. His wife died in 1924 aged 84.Death Search;

Department of Internal Affairs The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), or in te reo Māori, is the public service department of New Zealand charged with issuing passports; administering applications for citizenship and lottery grants; enforcing censorship and gambling law ...

; Registration number 1924/2046; Valpy, Penelope Caroline

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Valpy, William Henry Jr 1832 births 1911 deaths British people in colonial India Valpy-Fulton-Jeffreys family Settlers of Otago 19th-century New Zealand people People from Otago