Weller brothers
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2008-07-11T09:54:43Z
Peter Entwisle
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/* Further developments */ Cross reference.
The '''Weller brothers''', Englishmen of [[Sydney]] and [[Otago]], [[New Zealand]], were the founders of a [[whaling]] station on [[Otago Harbour]] and New Zealand’s most substantial merchant traders in the 1830s.
==Immigration to New Ideas==
The brothers, Joseph Brooks (1802-1835), George (1805-1875) and Edward (1814-1893), founded their establishment at [[Otago Harbour|Otago Heads]] in 1831, the first enduring European settlement in what is now the City of [[Dunedin]].
Members of a wealthy land-owning family from [[Kent]], they moved serially to Australia, partly to alleviate Joseph Brooks’ tuberculosis. Joseph left [[England]] on [[20 October]] [[1823]].<ref name=JBWeller>[http://www.weller.org.uk/cgi-bin/FamilyTree/ShowFamily.pl?ShowPerson=Active&PersonID=384&SortPeopleBy=GivenName Weller Family Tree: Joseph Brooks]</ref> He arrived in [[Hobart]] on [[4 February]] [[1824]] and then went to [[Sydney]]. After 18 months he returned to England, and left there for good on [[1 January]] [[1827]] accompanied by Edward.<ref name=JBWeller/> In the meantime George had already left England and arrived in [[Australia]] in March 1826.<ref name=GWeller>[http://www.weller.org.uk/cgi-bin/FamilyTree/ShowFamily.pl?ShowPerson=Active&PersonID=384&SortPeopleBy=GivenName Weller Family Tree: George]</ref> and had bought the ''Albion''.<ref name=JBWeller/><ref name=GWeller/> By 1830 Joseph Brooks, Edward, George and his new wife, Elizabeth (formerly Barwise), their parents, Joseph (1766-1857) and Mary (née Brooks) (b.1779), and two sisters, Fanny (1812-1896) and Ann (1822-1887), were all in Sydney.
==Development of trading==
Joseph Brooks Weller interested himself in [[New Zealand flax|flax]] and [[timber]] trading at the [[Hokianga]]. In 1831 he called at William Cook’s shipbuilding settlement at [[Stewart Island]] to commission a vessel before visiting Otago in the ''Sir George Murray'', reaching an agreement with [[Tahatu]] and claiming territory for [[William IV of the United Kingdom|William IV]]. He returned in the ''Lucy Ann'' with goods and gear to establish a whaling station, (it is believed with Edward) in November. George and his wife came too, or arrived soon after.
The Wellers continued to trade in flax and spars, maintaining operations at the Hokianga even as they developed Otago. At that time and throughout the decade they were the only merchants regularly trading from one end of New Zealand to the other. In January 1832, Joseph Brooks Weller bought land including the sites of the modern cities of [[Auckland]] and [[North Shore, New Zealand|North Shore]] and part of [[Rodney District]]. A fire soon destroyed the Otago station, but it was rebuilt. Edward was kidnapped by [[Māori]] in the far north and ransomed. Whale products started flowing from Otago in 1833 where Joseph Brooks based himself and European women went to settle.
Relations with Māori were often tense, the establishment being ransacked and the Wellers keeping Māori hostages in Sydney, reverberations from earlier conflicts. ([['The Sealers' War']].) Joseph Brooks died at Otago in 1835, his brother Edward shipping his remains to Sydney in a puncheon of rum.
At 21 Edward became the resident manager while George maintained the Sydney end of the business. At this time there were 80 Europeans at Otago which had become a trading, [[transshipment]] and ship service centre as well as a whaling station. A measles epidemic greatly reduced the Māori population.
==Further developments==
New fisheries were established inside the harbour and up and down the coast. The Wellers’ ships cruised beyond Australasia and they tested the tax regime preventing direct shipment of whale products to Britain.
Edward made strategic marriages to a daughter of Tahatu, Paparu, and after her death to [[Taiaroa]]’s daughter, Nikuru. There were daughters, Fanny and Nani, by each alliance.
By the end of the 1830s, exports of whale products were at a peak, as was the resident European population. Anticipating British annexation the Wellers started buying land and settling it. But a sudden decline in whales saw Edward’s exit at the end of 1840 followed by the firm’s bankruptcy. He and George lived out their lives in New South Wales.
[[Otago]], now the name of their settlement, reached a nadir in 1842 but revived, remaining the centre of port operations until after the establishment of [[Port Chalmers]] and [[Dunedin]]. As “[[Otakou]]” it is still the home of Pākehā and Māori.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
*[http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp ''Edward Weller'' in the ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'']
*[http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/W/WellerBrothersEdwardGeorgeAndJoseph/WellerBrothersEdwardGeorgeAndJoseph/en ''The Weller Brothers'' in the 1966 ''Encyclopaedia of New Zealand'']
*Entwisle, P. in Griffiths G. (ed) (1974) ''The Advance Guard Series 3 Edward Weller'' Dunedin, NZ: Otago Daily Times.
*Entwisle, P. (1998) ''Behold the Moon the European Occupation of the Dunedin District 1770-1848'' Dunedin, NZ: Port Daniel Press. ISBN 0-473-05591-0.
[[Category:People from Otago]]
[[Category:Otago Peninsula]]