William Henry Valpy, Jr.

William Henry Valpy, Jr. (January 1832 – 19 January 1911), was one of the earliest settlers of Otago.

Valpy was born in 1832. His father, William Henry Valpy, was at the time a judge in Calcutta, India. His mother was Caroline Valpy (née Jeffreys), a sister of Julius Jeffreys. Due to his father's precarious health, the family emigrated to New Zealand, where they arrived at Port Chalmers by the ship Ajax on 8 January 1849.

Prior to the family leaving England in 1847, Valpy Sr. had purchased land at the second or third balloting in London under the Otago Association. The family first settled at "The Forbury" by the Ocean Beach, now known as St Clair. Valpy Jr. was placed in charge of a sheep run at Waihola. In 1852, Valpy Jr. shipped the first fat stock sent by sea from Otago to Canterbury. After several weeks in Lyttelton, he and two shepherds returned to Otago on horseback in a 12-day journey, the first people to accomplish such a feat. His report to John Robert Godley of the feasibility of such an overland journey was published in the Lyttelton Times. During the same year Valpy Jr. moved to the Horseshoe Bush run, at the head of Lake Waihola, and in 1854, he took up the Maerewhenua station, in the Waitaki District in North Otago, and in 1856, purchased the Oamaru and Upper Taipo runs. Due to a severe accident, he was forced to sell his properties. Valpy Jr. then took up the Patearoa run, in the Upper Taieri, but sold it in 1860 to Dr. Buchanan. After that Valpy Jr. lived in retirement until 1874, when he was appointed Crown lands ranger for the northern portion of Otago, but retired from the position in 1888, when he and his family took up two runs at the head of Lake Wakatipu. They afterwards sold these properties. In the early 1860s, Valpy Jr. was made a justice of the peace, and he acted as Sergeant-at-Arms in the Otago Provincial Council, during the time that Julius Vogel was Provincial Treasurer.

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