Edwin Palmer

Edwin Palmer occupies pride of place in the chronological sequence of portraits as the first arrival of all the settlers displayed. He first spent time in Otago as early as 1825. He was born in Sydney in 1804, the son of English convicts, Richard Palmer and Elizabeth Titley. By the time he was 12, Edwin had gone to sea, serving with his father’s permission on a brig between Sydney and Hobart. Four years later both his parents died and Edwin moved to Hobart. In October 1825 he joined a sealing expedition on the Sally and came to southern New Zealand for the first time. He spent a fortnight wind-bound at Taieri Mouth where he came into contact with local Maori.

During this stopover Edwin formed a relationship with a Kāi Tahu woman, Patahi, and decided to stay. Patahi, however, had been promised to a chief and it was some time before they could be together. Eventually they settled at Ōtākou and had two daughters together. Edwin continued his seafaring, journeying back and forth between Australia and Otago and playing a leading role in sealing and whaling ventures around the southern coast. He was a hard man in tough times and at one time faced prosecution for the death of one of his men. When the whaling industry collapsed, Edwin lost heavily but transferred his focus to farming and managed to secure land at Otokia. He was also in demand as a pilot and traded along the coast.

By 1851 Edwin and Patahi had separated. In that year Edwin married Beatrice Fowler, a young woman recently arrived from Britain on the Titan. They were to have six children together at Otokia. Edwin also kept his two Māori daughters with him there and refused Patahi further contact with them. His farming ventures gradually prospered and he became a familiar figure in Dunedin, eagerly sought out by people wanting to hear about his experiences of sealing and whaling in the ‘early days’. He died in Dunedin in 1886, aged 83.