Bought an island near Kapiti and set up a store to provision the whaling boats. also whaling? HMO
Director of the NZ Banking coy, Russell, 1840. JL
"purchased" western side of Akaroa harbour 1839 PTR
eventually left NZ MKI
PPA Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist 14 March 1844
involved in a number of court cases in Auckland 1844
JODR
Recommending
Captain William Mayhew, ?a Citizen of the United States, and a Merchant of
the highest respectability?, to stand in as vice-consul, Clendon then headed
off to Auckland (now the seat of government), and a place on the Legislative
Council.67
Whaling master William Mayhew was apparently well qualified. From
the island of Martha?s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in 1834 he had commanded
the first of two voyages to New Zealand for the Rhode Island firm of Burr
and Smith. In 1837 he had settled in the Bay, investing in land ? a farm
at the Bay of Islands and Tahoramaurea Island (Brown?s Island, off Kapiti)
near Wellington, where he had a whaling station ? and also in goods he
imported from Rhode Island on the 365-ton schooner Henry Tuke, sending
back oil in exchange. Like Clendon himself, Mayhew was one of the eight
original directors of the New Zealand Banking Company, which opened New
Zealand?s first bank in September 1840, in Kororareka, and he had already
assisted Clendon in the consular work. Mayhew?s situation appeared solid,
but in reality he was in deep financial trouble, embroiled in a struggle to
keep the British from confiscating his property ? quite a contrast to Clendon,
who had been awarded 10,000 acres of land ?as he may choose to select
in the neighbourhood of Auckland?, plus an unspecified amount of cash, in
exchange for 200 acres at Okaito (Russell).68
In addition, Mayhew had no idea that Clendon had resigned and that in
accepting the post, he would be the only person responsible for American
interests in rapidly deteriorating circumstances. However his backers, ship
owners Burr and Smith, who fully understood the commercial potential of
the consulate, wrote letters of support to Senator James Simmons and their
congressman, R.B. Cranston, with the aim of getting their man the job of
full consul ? a project doomed to failure by international politics.69. William (Captain) Mayhew was a ran whaling station near Kapiti Island in 1836.
13 He was a captain of US whaling ships, Warren, Luminary between 1836 and 1840.
2,4,6 He immigrated to arrived Russell in 1839.
10 He was in acting American Consul living Russell Bay of Islands. in 1841.
15,1,16,2 He emigrated from from BOI on 15 May 1844.
14