Henry Phillips

Henry Phillips and his wife, Mary Ann arrived in Lyttelton, Canterbury, on the Sir George Seymour, one of the “First Four Ships” on 17 December 1850. They were accompanied by 6* (see note below) of their 12 children: Henry (18), James (13), Charles (11), Thomas (8), George (7), William (4). These names and ages are taken from a scan of the original ‘List of Chief Cabin Passengers‘ available on the Archives New Zealand website. There is no mention of their eldest child, John Physick Phillips, nor another son Richard Phillips b. 1837 (Richard may have passed away in early childhood). There is, however, a notice of John’s marriage to Louisa Smith, at Rockwood, in April of 1863, so we can be sure he did make it to New Zealand at some stage.

Source: https://genealogyjourno.wordpress.com/rural-cemeteries-of-canterbur...

Henry Phillips first took up Rockwood (Run 57), a run of 5,000 acres, on 15 July 1852 and enlarged his holding with a further 7,000 acres (Run 57A) of an adjoining block on 8 August 1855. In 1862 a neighbouring station, The Point, was purchased and taken up by his son, T.A. Phillips, in 1866.

Following Henry Phillips' death in 1877, the Rockwood run was sold the next year and T.A. Phillips transferred his operations to The Point, which was made freehold in 1889. In 1911 The Point was reduced to a total of 600 acres through land sales to the Snowdon run.

G.R. Macdonald's annotation in L.G.D. Acland's 'The early Canterbury runs' (1924-25) claims that the Rockwood diary tells more of the life of the Phillips party than it does about the station's running. 'The Governor' (Henry Phillips) was more interested in planting fruit trees and tending his gardens than in sheep work. The station has been well described by Lady Barker in her 'Station life in New Zealand' (1870) and T.H. Potts' 'Out in the open' (1882).

Source: http://thecommunityarchive.org.nz/node/67090/description

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via son George Septimus Phillips by SmartCopy: May 26 2015, 6:30:11 UTC