Returned 180-year-old real estate flyer part of colourful Nelson settler's story
This Collection Story features a lesser known source of historical insight, known as ephemera or printed items that were generally created for a short-term purpose.
AUCTION FLYER. TOWN & SUBURBAN LAND. TOWN SECTION NO. 270, 24 AUG 1843. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: NPM2021.35
A real estate advertisement printed almost 180 years ago has reignited speculation about the history of one of Nelson’s earliest landowners, Mr John J Imrie.
When Nelson Provincial Museum curator Karen Gorsuch received a call from an Australian last year asking if the museum would be interested in receiving the flyer, she didn’t expect it would lead back to Imrie, who first came to the attention of the curatorial team in the 1980s.
The Australian caller told her he had inherited, from his late father, an old real estate auction advertisement for a house and four acres of land in central Nelson. The real estate flyer advertised for sale Lot 270, situated in Cambria St north of The Wood, along with the dwelling and out houses that had been built on it.
The Nelson Examiner printed the flyer, indicating that, just like today, land and property would have been a topic of discussion amongst the first Pākehā settlers of Nelson. However, the nature of the real estate advertisement is remarkably different, promoting as it does features like a “brick chimney, oven, fowl and pigeon houses.”
PLAN OF THE TOWN OF NELSON APPROVED BY FREDERICK TUCKETT, CHIEF SURVEYOR, 28TH APRIL 1842. 1842. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, BETT COLLECTION: BETT2012.4.1299/M66
History endures in objects of all shapes and sizes. While museums are famous for acquiring significant objects that have often intentionally been made to withstand the test of time, they are also interested in what’s known as ephemera. Generally, these are printed items that were created for only a short-term purpose, such as tickets, menus, programmes, posters and flyers for events, campaigns, elections, shows, goods, and services.
“The survival of an 1843 flyer was enough for us to be interested in the item,” said Gorsuch. “The fragility of the newsprint makes its survival amazing but this one had been cared for and stored, perhaps indicating that it had some special meaning to its previous owners.
“But it was the mention of Mr J Imrie that made us take extra notice of this little flyer. It led us to connect it to another story that made the ephemera even more fascinating.”
SARAH GREENWOOD (1809 -1899). VIEW OF PART OF THE TOWN OF NELSON, DECEMBER 1852. WATERCOLOUR. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, BETT LOAN COLLECTION: AC329
Unreliable obituary examined
Back in 1985, a local woman expecting visitors from Australia contacted Dawn Smith, who was Nelson Provincial Museum librarian at the time. The woman told Smith her visitors had informed her that their ancestor, Mr John J Imrie, had lived in Nelson and they were keen to find out more about his life here. Imrie’s descendants then sent a copy of his obituary, which had been published in an Australian paper in May 1901, and this served as the starting point for Smith’s investigations.
However, as Smith was soon to discover, obituaries are not always accurate. Stories that are handed down from one generation to the next can alter over time and when family legends make their way into an obituary, fiction can triumph over fact.
“The obituary was a fantastical tale of shipwreck and escape,” said Gorsuch. “It claimed Imrie was, amongst many other things, a Scottish doctor who had fought in the Peninsula and Spanish Wars, was awarded a Victoria Cross, and then emigrated to New Zealand, where he bought a quantity of land from the local Māori, as well as being given a free grant from the British Government.”
The obituary also claimed he had overcome adversity – losing all his belongings in a shipwreck off the coast of Nelson – before going on to build the first house in what later became the first city in the South Island.
The text of the obituary read: “A fearful storm had suddenly come on and the ship struck on a rock and went to pieces before the eyes of the owner, and all was lost, not a soul saved!”
LONGUEVILLE, AFTER SIR FRANCIS DILLON BELL (1821 – 1898). NELSON FROM ABOVE SALTWALTER BRIDGE, 1845. WATERCOLOUR. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM, BETT LOAN COLLECTION: AC816
Smith’s interest was piqued by this tale but, on further investigation, she found that some of the claims in the article were incorrect; Mr Imrie had not fought in the wars and was possibly not even a doctor.
However, there was evidence that Imrie had arrived in New Zealand in 1841 and settled in Nelson shortly after, acquiring the property in The Wood. Tracing him through mentions in the newspaper and diarists of the era, it appears he ran a store in Bridge St with Alexander Perry under the name of J.J. Imrie & Co.
His name also appeared in the diaries of J.W Saxton, where he mentions Imrie’s home had a “beautiful view both of the righthand towards the sea and to the left towards Brook Street valley, and a rock spring near the door.” Saxton concluded this made him ‘more pleased with New Zealand than I had yet been.”
Speedy exit
Despite the favourable vantage point of his home, Imrie did not stay in Nelson for long and by August 1842 he had dissolved the partnership with Alexander Perry, after which he began selling his possessions.
Towards the end of that year, a Mr Frederick Kent issued a public notice, which was published in the Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle December 31, 1842, declaring he would not be responsible for any debts accrued by his wife, Emma Kent, who was “now living in open adultery with one John J Imrie, late shopman to Mr A Perry, and passing as his wife under his name.”
Gorsuch said she found this clipping in Smith’s research file. There was no other evidence to substantiate the allegation, so it’s not possible to say whether it influenced Imrie’s decision to leave Nelson.
Imrie’s house, land, household furniture and other effects were then advertised for sale several times between July and September 1843.
Not long after the auction of the Cambria St property, Imrie, accompanied by his wife Etty (nee Bailey), left Nelson on a ship that sailed on September 30, 1843, bound for Van Diemen’s Land – just under two years after he’d first arrived.
Gavin Bollard, one of John and Etty’s descendants, has written about his “famous relatives” on his blog, reporting the couple had 11 children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. It appears from these family records that at least two of the children were born before the couple arrived in Nelson. Their daughter Jessie was born in Nelson, while the remaining children were born after they moved to Australia.
Bollard said that while it appeared to be a “very checkered life”, his great, great, great grandfather was “somewhat of a hero” to his family.
“He was a great storyteller with a lively imagination, drawing on his own experiences he kept his grandchildren enthralled with stories of events that occurred during his lifetime often elaborating on certain events and putting himself into the story.
“He often mixed facts with fiction, including shipwrecks that he was involved in and wars that he had fought in. His storytelling was so good that his children often believed him. They all thought that he was a doctor, and it wasn't until research was done on him that we realised he never completed the course and had never worked as a doctor. He is still referred to as Doctor Imrie in much of the literature that has been written about him.”
Imrie ended his days living in Queensland, where he died in 1901, aged 86. Now, 121 years after his death and almost 180 years after he sold his property and fled, Mr Imrie’s flyer has returned to the shores of Te Tauihu.
The discovery of the real estate advertisement had once again revived interest in the story of John J Imrie’s life and the time he spent living in Nelson.
“As curators, we are interested in what we call ‘material culture’, what the object itself tells us,” said Gorsuch. “But this is a great example of how an object can unveil so much more.”
This story was originally published in the Nelson Mail on Saturday 2nd July, 2022. To view the story please click here.