William Mein Smith
William Mein Smith
People Buried Here
Epitaph
Captain Royal Artillery
First Surveyor General For the N.Z. Company. Soldier, Artist, Pioneer, Runholder. A founding father of Wellington and Wairarapa.
Erected by his descendants 150 years after his arrival on the vessel 'Cuba' in 1839
Description
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to William Proctor Smith & Mary Mein. He was raised in Devon and the Scottish Borders, serving in the Royal Artillery from 1814 in Ireland, then Canada. There he met his wife, Louisa Bargrave Wallace. They married at Kingston, Ontario in 1828 and his next posting was to Gibraltar, including being part of a diplomatic visit to Marrakech in 1829–30, followed by appointment to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich where he taught as Master of Line Drawing, before being approached to assist Wakefield's New Zealand Company in 1839. He and his team of surveyors sailed to New Zealand on the New Zealand Company barque Cuba, arriving on 3 Jan 1840 in the harbour of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Port Nicholson). His wife and older children arrived two months later.
He was a member of the General Legislative Council from 1851 until it was replaced by the later Legislative Council on 28 Sep 1853. He then represented the Wairarapa electorate on the Wellington Provincial Council from 1858 (when he defeated Charles Borlase) to 1865.
He died in Greytown in 1869 after a lengthy illness, at his and Revan's home "Brierly" at Woodside. Louisa had died there two years earlier.
Louisa was born in Canada the first child of the First Lieutenant, later General, Peter Margetson Wallace of the Royal Artillery and his partner, later wife, Louisa Turmaine. She married William in Kingston, Ontario, Canada & they had 10 children 1828 - 1843 (the last 2 in Petone).
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1s16/smith-william-mein