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Edward Jerningham WakefieldEdward Jerningham Wakefield (1820-1879) was the only son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Educated in England and France then, at age 19, he accompanied his uncle, Colonel William Wakefield to New Zealand. The expedition was on behalf of the New Zealand Company. They sailed on the Tory to the Cook Strait area; it was an advanced party seeking a suitable site to found a colony. Edward Jerningham had intended to stay in New Zealand for only a few months but he found the growth of the new colony so fascinating that it was four years before he returned to England in 1844. He quickly assembled his journals and they were published as "Adventures in New Zealand" in April 1845. The favourable picture he presented of the Colony founded by the New Zealand Company helped the Company to avoid censure in the House of Commons. For the next five years Edward Jerningham lived a dissipated life in London. Then, in 1850, faced with bankruptcy, he sailed for New Zealand once again, this time with the advanced party for the Canterbury Settlement. He entered politics being one of the members of New Zealand's first Parliament. He also represented the City of Wellington in the Provincial Council from 1855 until 1861. However because of his increasing alcoholism his behaviour was very erratic and he was an embarrassment to his supporters. Gradually over the next few years he dispated his wealth and substance and destroyed his health. He died, penniless, in Ashburton, New Zealand in 1879; a sad end for anyone. Perhaps it is best to remember Edward Jerningham by his book Adventure in New Zealand, first published in 1845. It is a lively account of the exciting adventures of a fairly innocent young man. Wakefield, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Edward Jerningham
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