The typescript transcription of the William Smith journal was probably created by F. D. Lovatt Smith, whose name appears on an introduction to the work, dated 15 September 1980. The original journal was a manuscript covering some 325 pages, and the typescript transcript forming the collection item starts at p.167 of the original manuscript.
The item had been part of a collection at New Zealand House, London.
William Smith was born in Cheddleton, Staffordshire, in 1823. He married Lizzie [Ferry] on 31 August 1852 and then the couple and his sister-in-law, Annie, left for New Zealand arriving in early 1853. Smith farmed near Kaiapoi in New Zealand. Records are said to show the issuing of a pastoral lease for 5000 acres of Kaiapoi Island to a William Smith in 1854, but he disposed of it almost immediately to George Day.
Smith had kept a diary throughout his life and wrote - in about 1870 - a journal from his diaries towards the end of his life. William Smith died in 1882.
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Accession no: E2014.59
Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie 23 April 2015
