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The Brig Ann and Mary first sailed from Sydney to Wellington NZ in March 1838 under Captain Richards and William Reeve in the crew.
New Zealand Free Lance, 3 February 1906, Page 3 It seems a little strange to us the "we" that have a reasonable prospect of years of life � that the people could not foresee the Wellington of to-day, and there and then settle down and hang on for a rise in values. But that is vain, and, anyhow, Reeve was one of the crew of the trading brig Ann and Mary, who were out to "take the natives down" with beads, tin trumpets, and highly-coloured blankets. But, the Ann and Mary came to grief at the Chathams (where it arrived just after the Morioris had massacred and eaten the crew, of the French whaler, John Barr), and the crew there and then squatted on the islands.
In 1841, Mr. Reeve tripped up to Wellington, and chose a wife from among the immigrant girls who had arrived from the Old Country by the ship Stains Castle, and was married to her in St. Paul's Church on January 22nd, 1841, by the Rev. Mr. Cole, the first Anglican minister established in Wellington. The old sailor remained at the Chathams until 1844, when he again went a whaling, this time to the frozen North, off the bitter coasts of Siberia and Alaska. On his retrain he began to think that "a life on the ocean main" was a bit of a blank, and so settled down in Johnsonville, where he stayed for twenty-five yeans. Then, he shifted up to Foxton, where another quarter of a century was spent. In 1896, he came again to Wellington to spend the evening of his days with his "children" most of whom show the grey hairs of mature age. William Reeve will be ninety-six years of age in June, which just about makes him the senior colonist living, and when he dies a bit of living history (of that time when New Zealand was tortured with the pains of giving birth to her present capital city) will be lost for ever. "Bill" Reeve looks good for the century, though.