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Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

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This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

Contents


JOLLIE, Francis

(1815–70) and Edward (1825–94).

Canterbury pioneers.

Francis, a farmer, and Edward, an explorer and surveyor, both took an active part in local politics. They were the first and fourth sons of the Rev. Francis Jollie, of Brampton, near Carlisle. Of Huguenot stock, the family had fled from France to Scotland and then settled in Cumberland. Francis arrived at Nelson in the Fifeshire, 1 February 1842, and took up land at Wakapuaka. He called his home “Thackwood” and was the first to grow hops in New Zealand. He acted as the local agent for the New Zealand Company and stood for the superintendency of Nelson but was defeated by Stafford.

In 1853 Francis Jollie moved to South Canterbury, taking up land at Peel Forest where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1858 he went to England for a year and on his return married Jane, eldest surviving daughter of the Rev. Blakeley Cooper, Rector of Newcombe, and widow of the Rev. George Fort Cooper, of Yetminster. He represented Timaru in the House of Representatives from 1861 to 1866, and Gladstone from 1866 to 1870. He was Colonial Treasurer in the Stafford Ministry in 1866. He died at Peel Forest on 30 November 1870. A man of integrity and sound judgment, he was an ardent fighter for his district's rights.

Edward was born on 1 September 1825 and left England at the age of 16 in the Brougham as a New Zealand Company survey cadet. He landed at Wellington in February 1842 and was employed there until 1845 when, owing to financial difficulties, the company was forced to terminate his agreement. He then farmed with his brother Francis at Nelson for a year until he joined Wylie and Wills on surveying work in Otago. When this was completed in June 1847, he returned to Nelson. When the Canterbury Association's advance party under Captain Thomas began work in earnest on the Canterbury Plains, Jollie was offered a position as surveyor and arrived at Lyttelton in August 1849 in the Supply together with Thomas Brunner who had recently returned from his exploration of the West Coast. Jollie was employed in laying out the towns of Lyttelton, Sumner, and Christchurch until March 1850 when all survey work in the Canterbury settlement was suspended owing to lack of finance. He remained in Canterbury for another year doing casual contract work, and then in March and April 1852, with E. J. Lee, he was the first to drive sheep overland from Nelson to Canterbury via the pass which now bears his name. The two took up Parnassus Station on the Waiau River shortly afterwards, and Jollie was there on and off until 1857. With Hewlings, he surveyed the country between the Rangitata and the Waitaki Rivers and fixed the western part of Otago's boundary. Jollie then gave up surveying and in 1861 married Caroline, daughter of the Rev. John Muggeridge Orsmond, of Auckland. They made their home at “Beachcroft” in the Ellesmere district.

Jollie was a member of the Provincial Council for Heathcote in 1865, and for Selwyn from 1866 to 1876, and served in the Executive both as a member and chairman. From 1865 to 1866 he succeeded Rolleston as Provincial Secretary. In 1875 he sold Beachcroft and visited England and Europe until 1884 when he returned and bought land at Patea in Taranaki. He had also an interest in the Napier land and estate business of Jollie, Fulton, and Co. He died at Waireka, near Patea, on 7 August 1894. Edward Jollie was a man of many and varied interests. He played an important part in the foundation and early life of the Canterbury settlement both before and after the arrival of the main body of settlers.

by Peter Bromley Maling, G.M., M.SC.(N.Z.), M.B., B.S. (LOND.), M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Medical Practitioner and Author, Christchurch.

  • Reminiscences, 1841–65 (MSS), Jollie, E. (Turnbull Library)
  • The Torlesse Papers (1848–51) (ed.) Maling, P. B. (1950)
  • The Natural History of Canterbury (jt.-ed.), Speight, R., Laing, R. M., and Wall, A. (1927).

Co-creator

Peter Bromley Maling, G.M., M.SC.(N.Z.), M.B., B.S. (LOND.), M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Medical Practitioner and Author, Christchurch.