An overview of the life of William Powditch
(1795-1872)
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You are here: home > William Powditch - an overview
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Other topics of interest include:
 Chronology 1821-1830 (includes links to individual years)More topics coming soon
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 William Powditch
was born on
8 Feb 1795
in Tynemouth, Northumberland, England,
and
he died
on
22 August 1872
in Epsom,
Auckland,
New Zealand
During his lifetime, he was recorded in hundreds' of Official
and Unofficial Documents, and also
in Newspapers.
Through his prolific
letter-writing,
his exploits and
his achievements, it
has been possible
to trace his life-history, as well as to gain an insight into the early colonisation of both Australia and
New Zealand.
Events have presented William Powditch on several occasions as having been argumentative, aggressive and arrogant - yet adventurous and certainly very astute.
Certainly, William Powditch was the Commander of the ship "Royal George" which brought Sir Thomas Brisbane and his family to Australia in 1821, and he 'accompanied' Colonel George Arthur in 1824 when the latter sailed to Tasmania
to take up the position of Governor there.
Although James Busby has been accredited with being the first grower of Vines
in the Hunter Valley, it is debateable that when William Powditch lived in the
Hunter Valley during the early 1820s, he had been growing Vines and
undertaking Viticulture there a few years before Busby's arrival.
William Powditch was however, the person who first introduced Alfalfa to Australia, and who also brought Wheat there when that country had been suffering
from a protracted drought.
In New Zealand he was the first Postmaster in the Bay of Islands, and was a
founder member of the first Provincial Council.
According to his own publication in 1865, he had introduced
a form of potato "to the north" (of New Zealand) which was named after him!
- whereas a family story alledges that he had more than a hand in
the drafting of the Waitangi Treaty.
But of course, all of the above is just a small part of the 77 years of his life, so in order to follow the progress from his birth onwards, discover when he
left England to settle in, first of all, Australia, and then in New Zealand; to find out what he did in each of those Countries and elsewhere, the Chronology of
his life (together with details regarding his wife, his children and other
items of relevance) which appears over the following pages will
hopefully prove to be of great interest.
Due to the number of Documents and other references to William Powditch, the Chronology has been sub-divided into 5 'sections' for ease of searching.
To see the the decennial sections, as well as individual years, relating to events
in William Powditch's life, please click here
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You are here: home > William Powditch - an overview
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