The New Zealand Connection
Immediately inside the south door, on the table, there are a folder and a small bound booklet about St.Barnabas’ church, Stoke, Nelson, at the north of South Island, New Zealand. This may appear outwith the concerns of a Suffolk church, but it commemorates the earliest days of the colonisation of New Zealand, in which the Rev. Martin Torlesse, Vicar of Stoke between 1832 and 1881, was a considerable influence. There is a photograph of the church hanging on the first pillar to the west.
Charles Torlesse
Reverend Martin
Torlesse
​ His part arose from the fact that his wife Catherine was sister of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the pioneer of systematic colonisation. The colony of South Australia was founded on his principles in 1836, and in 1839 a party of settlers led by his brother William sailed for New Zealand, where they established the town of Wellington in North Island. In 1840 Captain Hobson, as representative of the British government, signed the Treaty of Waitangi whereby the Maori chiefs ceded sovereignty to Great Britain.
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In 1841 another brother, Captain Arthur Wakefield RN, led an expedition to found the colony of Nelson. The Torlesse’s son Charles and a number of Stoke people were members, and before they sailed from Gravesend his father there preached a sermon for the settlers and mariners. The times were very harsh for the agricultural labourers and their families: one quoted example is of the man who trapped a hare in his garden to feed his seven children. He was caught by the gamekeeper, taken to court, and sentenced to a month’s imprisonment with hard labour, which effectively killed him.
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It is no wonder therefore that Mr.Torlesse, much to the chagrin of the landowners and farmers, encouraged his parishioners to better themselves by emigrating to the new country, but it is also worth contemplating the enormous courage and fortitude of those who did. On leaving their homes, and probably never having been as far as Colchester in their lives, they went there to travel on the (newly built) railway up to London, and once there they embarked in crowded sailing ships which took anything between 12 and 16 weeks at sea to reach New Zealand. Having arrived, they would be landed on the beach with a tent and their hand tools, and left to their own devices to survive. One such was William Songer (1814-1904) of Stoke by Nayland, whose wife was Naomi Emeny, sometime nanny at the Vicarage. He was founder of the community at Stoke, Nelson, in 1841. Others went to Christchurch, where in the suburb of Sumner there is a Stoke and a Nayland Street, while Mount Torlesse stands as the highest peak at the edge of the Southern Alps west of Christchurch.
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In the middle of the 19th century many took this route out of poverty and starvation, and Stoke is proud to have this special connection with New Zealand. It is worth noting that when St.Barnabas was opened in 1866 its bell was a gift from Sir Charles Rowley Bt. Of Tendring Hall, and carried the inscription of “Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord” provided by Martin Torlesse.
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William and Sarah Sowman travelled from Stoke by Nayland to New Zealand aboard the sailing ship Randolph.
William Songer came from Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk, England, arriving in Nelson on the Whitby, 5 November 1841, as the personal attendant of Captain Arthur Wakefield. William was born about 1814 and was 29 years old when he arrived. The day following their arrival, Captain Wakefield made the decision to raise the British flag on the hill above the landing place. William Songer was the man put in charge of the flag, bringing it ashore and up to site they named Signal Hill. William became the first settler in Surburban South, the name given by the New Zealand Company. As William established his farm, he renamed the area Stoke-by-Nayland after his home town. Before St. Barnabas Church was built, services were often held in William’s home, with the house being converted into a chapel and services held within. William funded the purchase of the bell that was installed in the Church. It is claimed that William possessed the first 4-legged table made in Nelson. He built a total of three houses in the Nelson area.
