David Carey (1814 - 1896)

Born 25 Jan 1814 in Hooe, Sussex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Hannah (Hutchinson) Carey — married 24 May 1838 in St. James, Hooe, Sussex, England

Descendants

Died 26 Mar 1896 at age 82 in Carey's Bay, Port Chalmers, Dunedin, New Zealand

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Biography

A small family group of 6 adults and a young child from Sussex, England (via Sydney, Australia) was amongst the very first pioneering settlers that came to Otago, New Zealand.

The entire party on board John Jones' ship the Magnet when it left Sydney late in February 1840, was most likely made up of 11 married couples, 13 children and a single man - a total of 36 people. Also travelling with them was three Maori chiefs and sheep, cattle and horses with which Jones was to stock his farm.

On 16 Mar 1840, the Magnet reached Bluff where some repairs were made to the vessel. After leaving Bluff, the Magnet sailed up the east coast, arriving at Waikouaiti on 18 Mar 1840. Three months later the British government proclaimed sovereignty over New Zealand.

Biography #2

• http://www.toituosm.com/collections/smith-gallery/wall-1/david-carey

David Carey was one of Otago’s earliest European settlers, his surname still commemorated in Careys Bay near Port Chalmers. Born in 1814 at Hoe in Sussex, David grew up as an agricultural worker during a time of change and conflict in the English countryside. Like many of his generation he decided a better future might await in the colonies. In 1838 he married Hannah Hutchinson. Two of David’s close friends, the Coleman brothers (one of whom was married to David’s sister), were emigrating to Sydney with their wives and had convinced David and his new bride to join them. Just a week after the Careys’ wedding, the three young couples set sail for Sydney.

The opportunities and conditions awaiting English farming immigrants in New South Wales proved a disappointment to the Careys and the Colemans. Hannah in particular did not like the hot climate. Within two years they decided to move even further into the unknown by accepting work in Otago on John Jones’s farming estate at Matanaka. After two years service they would be entitled to 60 acres of their own.

The Careys arrived at Waikouaiti in March 1840, not long after the first missionary had arrived at the former whaling station. Their coming was a watershed in the development of Otago and the beginning of a transition from whaling to farming as the region’s major economic activity. But it was tough going at Matanaka and many of the settlers fell out with their notoriously temperamental employer. By 1843 the Careys and the Colemans had all moved to Ōtākou.

The Careys were well established by the time the New Zealand Company settlers reached Otago in 1848. David had developed many skills and was able to make a living by farming, trading and timber-felling. He also piloted the first boat right up Otago Harbour (and was fined for doing so without a licence), brewed beer and distilled whisky from cabbage tree stems.

By the mid 1850s the family was settled at Careys Bay. When gold was discovered in the hinterland in 1861 David won enough gold to purchase 100 acres at the foot of the Kilmog hill. In 1864 he built the Blueskin Hotel and ran it with two of his sons, while another two took over the family farm. David and Hannah retired there in old age. David Carey died at Careys Bay in 1896, aged 82.

Sources

• Carey Genealogy.
• Obituary.
• Magnet - (1840).

• Family Search | https://www.familysearch.org/
  • "England, Sussex, Parish Registers, 1538-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJD6-29BX : 7 December 2017), David Carey, 1814.
  • "England, Sussex, Parish Registers, 1538-1910", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJD6-LN9Q : 7 December 2017), David Carey and Hannah Hutchinson, 1838.
  • "England Marriages, 1538–1973", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NVFW-NJT : 13 March 2020), David Carey, 1838.
  • "New Zealand, Cemetery Transcriptions, 1840-1981", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGLN-WTKY : Fri Oct 06 12:40:25 UTC 2023), Entry for Julia Carey Tayler and David Carey, 1924.
  • "New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24K-11PJ : 27 November 2017), David Carey, 1896; citing Death, New Zealand, registration number 1896/5369, Archives of New Zealand, Wellington.
  • "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK1V-5GGP : 10 September 2021), David Carey, ; Burial, Port Chalmers, Dunedin City, Otago, New Zealand, Port Chalmers New Cemetery; citing record ID 146430567, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.