Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/150

 1841. Mr. Sinclair had purchased land in New Zealand before leaving Scotland, but, finding he could not get suitable land near Wellington, he built a schooner, with which he visited Nelson, Banks Peninsula, and other places, and finally decided to settle in Pigeon Bay, where he brought his family in 1843. Having bought land in the Bay from the French Company, he afterwards selected the property he bought in Scotland, adjoining the land from the French Company, which formed the family estate in Sinclair’s Bay, and where Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair, with all their family around them, had a happy home till 1846, when the family were plunged into the deepest sorrow by the death of Mr. Sinclair and his eldest son, who were lost at sea on a voyage to Wellington. They were regretted by everyone, and Sir George Grey, then Governor of New Zealand, said that Mr. Sinclair’s death was a loss not only to his family, but to all the colony.

Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair’s family were George, who was lost with his father on a voyage to Wellington; James, who died in the Hawaiian Islands; Jane, who married Captain Thomas Gay; Helen, who married Mr. C. B. Robinson; Francis, who married and lived in