1846: Almon Boulcott’s Farm

May 16, 2021

By AHNZ

Almon Boulcott left his very wealthy English father and his estate to come to settle the Wellington area with his older brother in 1842. Today in history, 16 May, 1846, his path crossed with the raiders of Te Rangihaeata.

Te Rangihaeata was driven out of his home territory at Kawhia by a stronger tribe. He and his Ngati Toa migrated (violently) down to settle the Wellington area in about 1823, kicking out the Maoris who lived there before.

Rangihaeata was a conquer and the murderer of Wairau three years previous. With his uncle Te Rauparaha he played a cunning game of extorting Settlers for power and money until Governor George Grey shut their operation down permanently. Rangihaeata’s people invaded Boulcott’s Farm today in history which had preemptively been converted into a stockade, killing about 10 defenders before being driven off.

Grey counter-invaded the Hutt Valley Ngati Toa, backing them off into the Levin swamplands to waste away give up the fight. Old Rangihaeta eventually got sick there and died, but not before passing on his ancestral knowledge to an attentive George Grey who added it to his library collection.

“An interesting and valuable result of Grey paying court to the old chief was the relatively sympathetic response he gave to Grey’s request to be told the old myths and legends. From the material recorded in Grey’s manuscript records it is fair to assume that Te Rangihaeata had a deep knowledege of the lore of his race.” – NZ’s Heritage

“The Maori had already made his choice; he had sold his land and sacrificed his culture, but the Europeans did not understand or recognise the problems that arose from this decision.” – NZ’s Heritage

“Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata had been given a further sum of £400 in settlement of their claims on the Wellington lands, but still they and their followers continued to plunder homesteads,..” – p174 The Story of New Zealand, Reed (1974)

“Grey adopted the Fabian plan of driving the insurgents back into the mountain forests and slowly starving them out there.” – p170 The Long White Cloud, Reeves (1924)

Ngati Toa had received payments before the colony was settled..”Further payments were offered after the settlers arrived, and the original terms were revisited. They and other Maori also felt able to punish Pakeha who transgressed, for instance by occupying cultivated land, with customary measures such as physical violence and ritualised plunder of movable goods.” – New Zealand Historical Atlas, McKinnon, Department of Internal Affairs (1997)

After the attack under orders from Te Rangihaeta in May, 1846, Boulcott’s farm buildings were regrouped and encircled by the stockade. Lieut. G.H. Page’s watercolour of this configuration can be viewed here: Alexander Turnbull Library.

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Image ref. Rangihaeta’s portrait, Alexander Turnbull Library

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