On 16 December 1850, the ‘Charlotte Jane’ sailed into Lyttelton harbour, thus becoming the first emigrant ship to arrive at Canterbury, on the south island in New Zealand.
Four ships had set out together – the ‘Randolph’, the ‘Cressy’ and the ‘Sir George Seymour’ – but the ‘Charlotte Jane’ was the first of the four ships to arrive.
To mark this historic date in New Zealand’s history, here is a newspaper story from September 1850 that reports on the events surrounding the emotional departure of the ‘Charlotte Jane’ from Plymouth in early September 1850.
As many family historians in New Zealand use the BNA for their research, we think that this story (one of many in The Archive about the ‘Charlotte Jane’) will be of great interest to them.
Bucks Herald – Saturday 14 September 1850
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