Page:Gillespies Beach Beginnings • Alexander (2010).pdf/61



There has been speculation as to the date at which the move inland to take up land was made by both the Sullivans and Williams families. Henry Williams, writing to his grand-niece in the late 1930s declared it was 1891 but I believe it was 1889 for several reasons. When the huge double-paged article “Sullivan’s Kingdom” appeared in the Weekly News in 1959, Mick Sullivan (1st generation) gave the date as 1889. He gave the same date in 1940 as reported in Tales of Pioneer Women when talking about his sister, Julia. The following newspaper article quoted below supports this view and also the often-repeated ages of the two boys when they headed inland, 16 for Pat Sullivan and 19 for Fred Williams. Taking their birth dates into account, makes 1889 the more likely date. Fred was born in 1870. Patrick was the third child in the Sullivan clan with his parents marrying in June, 1870, so I have guessed his birth date as mid 1873.

West Coast Times, 19.9.1889 - Westland Land Board report covered an application by Laurence Sullivan through his agent, W. Duncan, to purchase 100 acres second-class rural land at Cook’s River for a price of 15/- (fifteen shillings) per acre with deposit of one-fifth paid.

It seems unlikely that Laurence Sullivan would have waited two years from the summer of 1889 until 1891 to start land clearance. The earliest record I can find of a land purchase in the name of Henry Williams was:

West Coast Times 18.9.1890 appln 924 Henry Williams thru agent W Duncan to purchase 20 acres of second-class rural land at Cook’s river being section 804, Block XVI Gillespie’s Survey District, purchase money of 15 pounds and Crown grant fee being paid - licence to occupy was ordered to be issued.