12 Facts About Jerningham Wakefield

Edward Jerningham Wakefield, known as Jerningham Wakefield, was the only son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

Jerningham Wakefield worked for the New Zealand Company and later was a member of the Canterbury Association.

Jerningham Wakefield was active as a politician in New Zealand, both at national and provincial level, but became an alcoholic and died penniless in an old people's home.

Jerningham Wakefield's parents were Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Eliza Anne Frances Pattle, but his mother died within days of his birth.

Jerningham Wakefield 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.

Jerningham Wakefield quickly assembled his journals and they were published as Adventure in New Zealand in April 1845.

Jerningham Wakefield joined the Canterbury Association on 6 May 1848, but resigned again on 8 November 1849.

Jerningham Wakefield moved to Wellington in 1855 to be near his sick father, and represented the City of Wellington in the Provincial Council from 1857 to 1861.

Jerningham Wakefield stood in the 1875 election in the Christchurch electorate, where six candidates were contesting three available positions, but he came fifth and was thus defeated.

Jerningham Wakefield had a financial interest in the earliest daily newspapers.

Jerningham Wakefield was one of the MPs sometimes locked in small rooms at Parliament by Whips to keep them sober enough to vote in critical divisions, though in 1872 this was defeated when political opponents lowered a bottle of whisky down the chimney to him.

Jerningham Wakefield died, penniless, in Ashburton, New Zealand in 1879.