Joseph George Toms (1798 - 1852)

Born 20 Apr 1798 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Husband of Maria (Boulton) Thoms — married 26 Feb 1838 in Sydney, New South Wales

Descendants

Died Aug 1852 at age 54 in Cloudy Bay, New Zealand

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Biography

Geordie Toms migrated from England to New Zealand.

Geordie Toms is Notable.

"According to a family bible kept by his children, Joseph George Thoms was born in Liverpool on 20 April 1798. He was also known as 'Geordie Bolts', and his granddaughter said his children always referred to him as 'Geordie'. According to the will he signed in 1840, he was 'Joseph Toms, mariner, late of Sydney, N.S.W., but now residing in Queen Charlotte's Sound...

An incident occurred in June 1840, which has given Joseph Thoms a unique place in New Zealand history, but is more relevant here in demonstrating the honour and respect with which he was held by his Maori in-laws. After the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in February, Major Bunbury was tasked to secure confirmatory signatures from southern chiefs. Bunbury went first to Stewart Island where, after having to translate the northern Maori text into an approximation that Southerners could understand, the high-chief Tuhawaiki, recently home from Sydney, finally signed. After visits to Otago and Akaroa, Bunbury arrived at Cloudy Bay where initially the men of Te Rauparaha, including Nohorua, were most reluctant to sign up, fearing that if they chose to do so then their lands could then be taken from them.

However after extensive debate, all nine chiefs then in Cloudy Bay signed the Treaty. Nohorua was the last to sign, and did so only after insisting that his son-in-law, Joseph Thoms, witness and sign it too, reasoning that if his grandchildren should lose their land by it, then their father, Thoms, would share the blame. Thus Joseph Toms became a witness and signatory of the Treaty of Waitangi, not on the pakeha side, but upon the insistence of his Maori in-laws. (McNab 1913 p.378)...

The few scattered references to Thoms during the 1830s indicate that he prospered and became a man of some substance. in 1832, he had settled in Te Awaiti, living among Maori from Taranaki. His two sons were in 1833 and 1835. In November 1835 "Mr and Mrs Thoms" were passengers, not crew, on the Hind from Cloudy Bay to Sydney. (Family records say they were married, 'legally' there). In August 1836 he was whaling at Cloudy Bay as Johnny Bolts, using an extra boat provided by an American captain. In September 1838, Lt. Chetwode noted at Te Awaiti that though Maori thieves had 'robbed Thoms of property to a great amount', Thoms was still operating 12 whaleboats, presumably with crews of over 80 men, and perhaps as many as a hundred. (McNab 1913 pp.136, 455, 225). At this time Thoms also owned a small cutter Harriet of under 30 tons, which he and others used extensively for coastal trading.

His shore whaling station at Te Awaiti was still operating in September 1839 when it was visited by the young aristocrat, Edward Jerningham Wakefield. Evidently they did not get on. Perhaps Thoms was not as deferential as his contemporaries, and Wakefield responded by giving Thoms a negative report that is not echoed by any other source: 'Another man heading a whaling party here was nicknamed 'Geordie Bolts'. His real name was Joseph Toms, but being crippled in an encounter with a whale, he had the fame of never having been able to face one since, and hence the nom de guerre. His appearance was by no means as attractive as that of Barrett. Independently of the deformity arising from his unfortunate accident, he was of small stature and repulsive features. Nor had he acquired the same character of hospitality and kindness to either natives or fellow-countrymen, which we found universally accorded in Dicky [Barrett]. He was married to a near relation of Rauparaha, and by means of the alliance maintained another whaling station at a harbour called Porirua, on the main between the islands of Kapiti and Mana'. (Wakefield 1845 p.46). His injury may have rendered him unable to row, or to harpoon, but Thoms did continue whaling for another decade, and Wakefield's suggestion that he had become too frightened to attack a right whale, seems highly unlikely and mistaken.

Although trading came to be much more important, some residual shore whaling continued during the first years of the infant colony. In 1843 the "Purrirua" station took 60 tuns, and 24 tuns and 25 cwt of baleen in 1844. These were the product of perhaps only two right whales in 1843 and one in 1844, very small returns for a season even if, as seems likely, the men were usually engaged on other activities and were in essence only whaler-men part-time and "on call". In 1845 Edward Boulton ran the station at 'Purirua' with 18 men in two boats but took only 18 tuns of oil and 15 cwt of baleen. In 1846, the Porirua station took even less, just a paltry 1 1/2 tuns, or under 400 gallons. By that time, whale bones and other whaling debris extended all along the shore from the whaling station to the streams at Plimmerton and Taupo pa...

From his humble beginnings, Thoms had become a wealthy man. As early as 25 November 1840, he had made out a document that begins In the name of God, Amen, I Joseph Toms, ... do make and publish ... my last Will ... . He left all his financial assets and his dwelling and its equipment to his second wife, Maria Boulton. He left a whaleboat and a larger schooner boat to his son George, a whaleboat to his son Thomas, and all his land at Sawyers Bay to his brother-in-law Thomas Boulton." ^[1]

"With a mixture of Päkehä and Ngäti Toa whalers, Thoms hunted the slow right whales that migrated through Cook Strait and past Porirua every year. One of these whalers was Te Ua Torikiriki, daughter of Nohorua. Thoms married Te Ua in c. 1830 and thus linked himself to Ngäti Toa (Wakefield 1845: vol.I, p.46; Millar 1971: 70; Boulton 1990). Some time after 1844, following the death of Te Ua, Thoms moved permanently over to his Te Awaiti whaling station in the Marlborough Sounds. It seems likely that at this time, with the whaling station at Paremata no longer active, the nearby pä was abandoned. ^[2]

"EARLY ACCOMMODATION HOUSES AND INNS - In 1848 there were fourteen public houses in Wellington, and Porirua rejoiced in four bush licenses. In 1847 Porirua had three bush licenses, besides one at Puke-rua, and even Okiwi had one, the establishment of the notorious Okiwi Brown, a man who was suspected of murder at that place, and also of having been concerned in the Burke and Hare murders in the Old Country. The district was well supplied with such places in early days. There was Geordie Bolt’s rude 'bush pub' at Paremata in the forties, one at Jackson’s Ferry, and afterwards, we believe, two 'pubs' at the Ferry, London’s at Tinipia (Paremata), the Half-way house on Section No. 23, a mile or more from Johnsonville, Ames’s inn at Johnsonville, another at Paua-taha-nui, and Blackie’s at Horo-kiri, on Section No. 20."^[3]

"On the next spur, opposite the narrowest part of the bay at Paremata proper, and the old stone barracks and Geordy Bolt’s (Thoms) whaling station, are hut sites and middens, while on the next small semi-detached spur the same evidences are seen... The ten Europeans at Porirua’s service were probably some of Geordie Bolt’s Hardshell Baptists... There were two whaling stations at Porirua, on the mainland, and one on Mana Island. The well-known Geordie Thoms, alias Geordie Bolts (Hori Poti), had a shore station at Paremata; about the only token of which now remaining is one of his old trypots, that may be seen at the ruins of the old stone barracks nearby. Long years ago we saw another old trypot at the old Cooper homestead, on the Whitireia Peninsula. The other shore whaling station was situated at Te Korohiwa, on the coast south of Titahi. This name was corrupted into “Coalheavers” by the whalers.

To return to Geordie Bolts, whose proper name was Thoms. He received the former name on account of his being unable to face the dangers of whaling after he had been injured in an encounter with one. Dr F.J. Knox, in a paper on the subject of whales, contributed by him to Vol. 2 of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, remarked: 'I remember a whaler of the name of Thoms … who was merely touched by the tale of a mysticete, and nearly every bone on one side of the body was broken. Fortunately, there was no duly qualified doctor to be had, and Thoms consequently got quite well with the exception of a slight lameness. When brought to the station he was lifted out of the boat with considerable difficulty, being literally glued to the boat by the blood lost.'

Geordie kept a rude accommodation house at this camp at Paremata, at which travellers in early days used to stay. Crawford, in his Travels in New Zealand, remarks: 'Thoms was a noted disciplinarian. No one (of his men) dared to disobey his orders. If anyone ventured to dispute with him, he would tie him up and hold him prisoner. He was a short, stout man, with a trunk like a barrel, and a bullet head, standing firm on his legs, and looking everyone straight in the face. … A Wellington merchant asked him how he managed to make a cask of rum go so far… 'Why' said Thoms, 'when I takes out a glass of rum, I puts in a glass of water, and when it gets too strong of water, I puts in turps; and when it gets too strong of turps, I put in bluestone!'

And yet the pioneers lived!

Wakefield says of this worthy: 'His real name was Joseph Toms (?Thoms), but being crippled in an encounter with a whale, he had the fame of never having been able to face one since, and hence the nickname of 'Geordie Bolts' … he was of small stature and repulsive features… Besides his two whaling stations at Porirua and Te-Awa-iti-I, he had another in Port Underwood, and had taken out licenses for public houses at all three. That at Porirua, especially, promised to yield him profit, as the amount of travelling by land was rapidly increasing on the north side of the Strait since the foundation of the settlements of Whanganui and Taranaki...

The last two years of his whaling operations pretty well ruined Thoms, so poor was the return. The sheers for handling the whales at Paremata were situated between the point and the old barracks, near a fence which now (1913) runs down to the water. There was a jetty there in those days; it is also shown in a plan dated 1852. On this plan Boddington’s accommodation house is marked near the jetty. One Andy Green kept an accommodation house at the Point after Geordie Bolt’s time, and in still later days [Boulton-414|Bolton]] had a similar place there. Brett’s Early History of New Zealand reproduces some pictures of this and other places round the harbour.

Thoms was said to have known that the Natives intended to attack the surveyors when they should commence the survey of the Wairau district, Marlborough. When Ngati-Toa left Porirua to cross the strait for that purpose, Thoms took some of them over to Cloudy Bay in his vessel, the Three Brothers, and gave them two muskets in exchange for a slave. An account of this expedition, which resulted in the Wairau massacre, published in the New Zealand Journal, states : – 'Mr Thoms, who was married to a relative of Te Rauparaha, and, in virtue of that connection, claims land in the Wairau district and elsewhere, promised to take the Natives to his residence in Cloudy Bay and detain them there until the arrival of Mr Spain, Commissioner of Land Claims. However, he made no attempt to detain them, although it was generally understood by his sailors that the Natives were going to Wairau to attack the Europeans... Hence it was that many persons looked askance at Thoms.

After the slaughter of whites at Wairau, which presumably the Government were too weak to punish the natives for, the Natives became remarkably bounceable in their demeanour towards Europeans, and began to annoy them at the Hutt and Porirua, with the expressed intention of expelling them form the district. This system of annoyance merged gradually into depredations, murder and open war...” ^[4]

"He was well-known in the early days of the colony as 'Jordie' Young... In 1836 he crossed the Straits again and joined Geordie Toms' (also called Geordie Bolt) whaling party in Queen Charlotte Sound." [PapersPast.com: 'The Experiences of a Veteran Colonist: 'Frightful Slaughter in the Early Days - Massacre of the Akaora Natives' (from the Wellington Post); STAR, ISSUE 5098, 4 SEPTEMBER 1884"]

Sources

1. ↑ 'Joseph Thoms: Sealer, Whaler and Trader of Porirua', by Rhys Richards;The Stockade; Volume 36; 2003, pp. 16-27 (quoting Wakefield 1845; Dieffenbach 1843; McNab 1913 p.298; Millar 1971; Richards 2002 p.25).
2. ↑ "Tuhinga: Records of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The journal of scholarship and mätauranga'; Number 26; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Wellington, NZ; 2015."
3. ↑ "Tawa History: Mana Island', by Elsdon Best"
4. ↑ "'PORIRUA – AND THEY WHO SETTLED IT', by Elsdon Best"

• "National Library: 'The first group of men from Te Awaiti, to go whaling on Campbell Island', by Joseph Boulton" Image.

• "Portrait of Joseph Toms, son of Joseph Toms the whaler and trader who was the only European to sign the Treaty of Waitangi', by Joseph Boulton (Grandson)." Image

• Wikipedia: Treaty of Waitangi

• New Zealand History: "Treaty Signatories"

• "WaitangiTribunal.govt.nz: 'Joseph Thoms' Land Claims"

• "The George Hori Thoms and Colonial Laws of Succession Claim" authored by Joy Hippolite; October 1999, p. 4.

• "Archaeological Monitoring... Cumberland, The Rocks."

• "Geni: 'Joseph George Toms/Thoms'"
• Marriage Register - NSW: TOMS-BOULTON; No. 1551/1838 V18381551 22.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #207449808