John Plimmer

John Plimmer (28 June 1812 – 5 January 1905) was an English settler and entrepreneur in New Zealand who has been called the "Father of Wellington".

Early life in England

Plimmer was born at a village called in contemporary accounts "Upton-under-Amon" near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England on 28 June 1812, youngest but one of 12 children of Isaac Plimmer, builder and timber merchant, and his wife Mary (nee Roden). Identifiably the village is Upton Magna, which lies under Haughmond Hill, where he was baptised on 19 July that year. (Transcribed parish register has corresponding parents' names.)

Educated at a local parish school, he was intended for teaching but preferred to train as a plasterer and master builder. He practised the trades at Willenhall, Staffordshire from after his father moved there until his own emigration and it was at Birmingham in that area he first married in 1833.

Life in New Zealand

He arrived at Wellington from England on the ship Gertrude in 1841. As an entrepreneur in 1851 he purchased the stranded whaling ship Inconstant and converted the hull into a warehouse and one of the first piers in Wellington. It became known as "Plimmer's Ark", a centre of business in early Wellington, used as an auction house, customs office and lighthouse.

He was a member of the Wellington Provincial Council from 1856 to 1857, the first Wellington Town Board (1863) and was on the Wellington City Council from 1870 to 1871.

His principal public service was the organisation of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company between 1880 and 1886. The township (now a suburb) of Plimmerton, on the Wellington - Manawatu Line built by the company, was named after him.

Legacy

He is buried at Bolton Street Cemetery, and his grave is part of the memorial trail.

There is a statue of him at the bottom of Plimmer Steps off Lambton Quay, Wellington.

The McKinnon brothers Don, Ian, John and Malcolm are great-great-grandsons of Plimmer.

The Plimmer Towers office complex is named after him.

Links and Sources

• Wikipedia contributors. "John Plimmer." Wikipedia, The Free * Encyclopedia.
• 'PLIMMER, John', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 22-Apr-09

  ---

GEDCOM Note

Buried along side his first wife, Eliza. Plot Number: 3604 John and Eliza with three children and John's nephew, John Plimmer Junior, immigrated to New Zealand on the ship "Gertrude", departing England on 19 June 1841 and arriving in Port Nicholson, New Zealand on 31 October 1841. John and Eliza had nine children, four born in England and five in New Zealand.

Author: Philippa Jane Ballantine Published on: September 13, 1999 This is a story about a young land, a hidden ship, and a driven man. For its mysteries to be revealed you have to travel far to the south, and back in time.

Dipping into the depths of the Southern oceans, and running back into the nineteenth century there was a little known little traveled corner of the world,. This place was a hive of activity, with strong masted ships plying the ocean carrying people into a new world. Here colonization was going on; in the nineteenth century New Zealand was being born. Later to arise to nationhood than Australia or America, it none the less went through the same birth pangs. It was and is a country of mountains and lakes, in those days barely broken by the thick layer of dense green forest (called bush in these southern climes), and it was a world away from the 'civilized' nations of Europe and America. It also attracted a similar kind of person in those early years as had journeyed to the Wild West or the back blocks of Australia; the rough, the brave and those looking for opportunity that the old world they knew did not offer them.

In the bottom of the northern of the two islands that make up the country, in a sheltered harbor that the native Maori called the Harbor of Tara, a young capital city was being constructed- or what would become a capital. The muddy streets and hastily constructed buildings of Wellington seemed to offer little chance of being a national capital in those days. The surroundings were far more regal though; a beautiful tree lined harbor, nestled in the all most encircling curve of the hills. The area was occasionally buffeted by the wild winds that met in the Cook Strait that is the gateway to the Southern Island, but the weather was generally kind. Unlike other new nations, New Zealand was being intensively colonized systematically. Wellington had been one of the first experiments of Edward Gibbon Wakefield's New Zealand Company. He'd wanted to bring immigrants to New Zealand in an organized fashion.

Unfortunately however by making too many bad decisions, such as wrong surveying of the land and ill thought out purchases from the local Maori tribes, he'd doomed his efforts. History would not look kindly on Wakefield and his schemes. Still when a young Englishman named John Plimmer stepped ashore in Wellington, everything must have seemed new and exciting. There was no proper anchorage for the ships at that point, so he would have been rowed ashore. Surely he must have wondered what he had done bringing his family to this wild untamed shore.

John Plimmer from Shropshire England was both a master builder and a plaster, and there can't have been a better trade to have in such a young nation. He put it to immediate use. Settling in Te Aro he began his own timber business, and set about making his fortune.

It was then that the one lady he would be remembered for came into his life. 1849 and the 'Inconstant' ran aground at Pencarrow head, it was a notorious spot for shipwrecks. The barque was damaged so severely her owners decided to get rid of her, and it was John Plimmer who eventually bought her. Using her as a warehouse and auction rooms, he made the ship an odd but integral part of the main street of colonial Wellington. Parked half in the water half out, crinolined ladies toiling through the mud to get to their favorite store must have wondered what on earth was going on, as the 'Inconstant' was shored in place, but soon she became just another part of the Beach, and later that became even more true. She earned the nick name of 'Plimmer's (or Noah's) Ark'.

But changes were a foot. Fifteen years later Wellington became the capital of New Zealand, winning that honor from the more northern Auckland. The citizens had forever altered the face of the harbor with reclamation of land changing the quaintly named 'Beach' into the more regal 'Lambton Quay'. With the loss of the shoreline, the 'Inconstant' must have looked more and more like a fish out of water, and by 1861 she had been swallowed alive by the relentless reclamations. John Plimmer built a longer wharf to compensate, and the last remains of the Ark were covered up by the building of the National Mutual Building. John Plimmer went on to be Town and Provincial Councilor, foundation member of the Chamber of Commerce and revered as 'the Father of Wellington'. While the poor old ship had been relegated to paintings and memory only. But things have a way of not staying buried as they say, and the 'Inconstant' has emerged almost phoenix like from her tomb. Work men in 1997 couldn't have been more surprised to discover the well preserved ship lying directly in their path during the renovations of the Old Bank of New Zealand site on Lambton Quay. Some people had remembered she was there, but oddly no one expected her. The street names of Wellington are still the same, and even some of the buildings have survived, but somehow the 'Inconstant' is a more vivid remembrance of those times gone by, and the drive and determination of the men and women who created a nation.

It's fitting then that now Plimmer's Ark has been revealed, that she lies not far from the Plimmer's Steps where an immortalized bronze John Plimmer still stands. It's nice to think of them still together after all these years.

John Plimmer was born in Shropshire, England in 1812. He worked with his father as a builder and carpenter, trades which would help him greatly in his new home of Wellington. John and his wife Eliza and their three children came to New Zealand as steerage passengers on the ship Gertrude, as part of the New Zealand Company's emigration scheme.

They arrived in Wellington on 31 October 1841 after a four month voyage.

A family man

John Plimmer and his first wife had eight children; he and his second wife had two children. He had numerous grandchildren and his descendants still live in Wellington. Within a week of arrival in Wellington he had built a cabin for his family, unlike many new settlers who lived in tents for months.

In his first months in Wellington working as a builder he accepted both money and food or other goods in payment for work.

Plimmer initially constructed brick houses for the new settlers, using lime from his own lime works and bricks from his own brick works. After the 1848 and 1855 earthquakes brick was not a popular material for construction, because it was too rigid in an earthquake. So Plimmer readily switched back to his first trade as a carpenter and continued constructing wooden houses and building for the growing town, as well as repairing buildings in the earthquake.

In July 1844 he purchased land at "Clay Point" - the corner of Lambton Quay and Willis St - then and now a popular meeting place. The alternative to going around the point was climbing the hill on John Plimmer's land and walking down Boulcott St. This route became known as Plimmer Steps that Wellingtonians climb today. The oak tree planted by Plimmer from an acorn brought with him from England can still be seen on Plimmer Steps.

After the 1848 earthquake government tenants acquired the lease of Barrett's Hotel on the Thorndon foreshore, and the licence for Barrett's was transferred to the old Plimmer residence at Clay Point. There the hotel reopened at what would soon prove to be a more suitable location for a drinking establishment.

John Plimmer realised the importance of wharves for the growing town. He was already planning to build a wharf when the Inconstant wreck provided a ready made alternative.

In his time in Wellington, John Plimmer was a carpenter an builder, brick manufacturer, land speculator, importer, merchant, landlord, and civic leader.

Plimmer was elected to the Wellington Provincial Council in 1857, and was a member of the Wellington Board of Works from its institution in 1862. After successfully organising a ratepayers petition to the Government to make Wellington a city, he was one of the first councillors to serve on the new Wellington City Council, formed in 1870.

Plimmer was a founding member of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and through his writings in the local newspapers, keenly promoted the development of the province.

John Plimmer also helped form a company to construct the railway between Wellington and the Manawatu. It was probably his greatest legacy to the development of Wellington. For his role in this Plimmer was honoured with the naming of the seaside town of Plimmerton.

Plimmer built or managed many notable Wellington hotels, including Barrett's the Albert Hotel (Known as the Old Identities for the busts of notable figures of the day which adorned the outside wall), the City Hotel, and earlier hotel on the Tramways site in Newtown.

In his later years, in recognition of his contribution to the city of Wellington, Plimmer was unofficially bestowed the title "Father of Wellington".

Plimmer is remembered in many Wellington landmarks: Plimmer steps, with the oak tree and the statue of John Plimmer and his dog Fritz, Plimmer house on Boulcott St, the bell of the Inconstant which hangs in St Alban's church at Pauatahanui, and the settlement of Plimmerton.

John Plimmer's grave can be found in a peaceful corner of the Bolton St cemetery, in the heart of the city he loved, and to which he contributed so much.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9139, 11 July 1906 in reporting a court case where his second wife Janet Plimmer (nee Anderson) contested the will of John Plimmer who it was reported had wealth estimated at 38,000 pounds. Under a deed of separation agreement made in 1874 she was receiving 150 pounds annually and sought and was awarded 1000 pounds from the estate. The trustees appealed the decision and the Appeal Court allowed the appeal and instead of a lump sum ordered she receive 100 pounds annually from the estate from the date of John Plimmers death.

From An Encyclopediat of New Zealand 1966

PLIMMER, John (1812–1905).

Early settler, businessman.

John Plimmer was born on 28 June 1812 at Upton-under-Amon, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the youngest but one of the 12 children of Isaac Plimmer, a builder and timber merchant, and of Mary, née Roden. He was educated at the local parish school and intended for the teaching profession; however, he preferred to train as a master builder and plasterer. When his father moved to Willenhall, Staffordshire, Plimmer plied his trade there until he was attracted by the colonising activities of the New Zealand Company. On 31 October 1841 he arrived at Port Nicholson in the Gertrude and settled at Te Aro, Wellington, where he commenced a prosperous timber and charcoal-burning business and a small limeworks. In 1850 he purchased the Inconstant (586 tons), which had been wrecked at Pencarrow Head. After towing the hull to Lambton foreshore, to a point opposite the present Barrett's Hotel, he converted it into a wharf, business offices, and a bonded warehouse. Plimmer's wharf or “Noah's Ark”, as it became popularly known, proved a most profitable concern and continued to be used until 1883. Over the years Plimmer invested much of the money he made from the “Ark” in various local public companies. After the 1855 earthquake he devoted himself to his building and contracting business, became a foundation member of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and was elected to the first Town Board (1867–71). He represented Wellington City in the Provincial Council (1856–57) and opposed the sale of the city's reserved lands. During his term he introduced, and successfully piloted through the Council, a Bill to vest these in the city authorities. Possessing keen business foresight, Plimmer became a strong advocate of railways, the reclamation of portions of Wellington's waterfront, and improved harbour facilities. For many years he urged the construction of the North Island Main Trunk railway and was prominent in the agitation which preceded the formation of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Co. Plimmer was a foundation member of the company, remaining on its board until 1900. He was also a director of the New Zealand Times Co. for many years and contributed many letters and articles on current topics to that and other Wellington newspapers. During the Boer War he conducted vigorous press campaigns to aid the patriotic funds. In 1901 the Government appointed him one of the Wellington Commissioners to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York.

Partly because of his extreme longevity and partly because his firm was responsible for erecting many of the well-known commercial buildings in the city, John Plimmer has been called “the Father of Wellington”. More justly, perhaps, this title should belong to Colonel Wakefield.

Plimmer was twice married: first, in 1833, at Birmingham, to Mary Roden, who was probably a cousin; and, secondly, in 1864, at Wellington, to Janet, a sister of John Anderson, editor of the Wellington Independent. He died at his home at Plimmer's Steps, Wellington, on 5 January 1905, survived by four sons and three daughters of his first marriage and a son of his second. One of his sons, Isaac Plimmer (1834–1908), was associated with his father in business and represented Wellington in the Provincial Council (1869–71). A grandson, William Harcus Plimmer (1874–1959), was the musical and dramatic critic on the Dominion for many years; and a great-grandson, Clifford Ulric Plimmer, was a member of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the State Services of New Zealand (1962).

https://boltoncemetery.org.nz/burial-list/detail/5943/