Quick Facts
Biography
William Thomas Fairburn (1795–1859) was a carpenter and a lay preacher or catachist for the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) in the early days of European settlement of New Zealand.
Early life
He was born in England in 1795, and married Sarah Tuckwell on 12 April 1819 in St Johns Church of England, Parramatta, Sydney, NSW Australia.
Missionary work in New Zealand
He and Sarah sailed on the brig General Gates to New Zealand on 27 July 1819, accompanying Samuel Marsden on his second visit to New Zealand.
In 1823, Samuel Marsden brought Fairburn to his mission.
In October 1833 he went with John A. Wilson, James Preece and John Morgan to establish a mission station at Puriri in the Thames area. In 1840 he was at the mission station at Maraetai, and was at the Puriri Mission in 1842.
The "Fairburn purchase"
Between 1836 and 1839 Fairburn began moves to establish a mission station at Maraetai while attempting to purchase a vast tract of land from various iwi of Auckland. Brokered as "an act of Christian peacemaking" between warring tribes on the Tāmaki isthmus, Fairburn obtained "signatures" to the deed of purchase from over 30 rangatira; few, if any of whom could read or write.
Fairburn originally estimated the total area to contain 40,000 acres (160 km2), but it was later surveyed as being around 83,000. When the purchase came under scrutiny from the CMS, in 1837 Fairburn signed a deed promising to return one third of the land to the original inhabitants (a transaction which never took place), and unsuccessfully attempted to offer another third to the Church.
Following the Treaty of Waitangi establishing New Zealand as a British Overseas Territories in 1840, Fairburn came under investigation from the new Government's Land Claims Commission. Following a protracted investigation (during which time Fairburn resigned from the mission), in 1848 the Commission disallowed Fairburn's original claim, awarding him instead a much smaller grant of just under 5,500 acres (22 km2).
The remainder of the land, including Ōtara, was retained by the Crown as "surplus land" to be onsold to European settlers. Following the protests of Hori Te Whetuki on behalf of Ngāi Tai, in 1854 the Commission granted a "Native Reservation" of just over 6,000 acres (24 km2) at Duders Beach (Umupuia) to "the chiefs of the Ngatitai" and paid them £500 compensation, on the condition that they sign an agreement to vacate all other lands within the original purchase boundaries, and order all other iwi to do the same.
Offspring
His daughter Elizabeth married William Colenso.