WAKEFIELD, EDWARD GIBBON (1796-1862) was the son of Edward Wakefield, who at the time of his birth was a farmer in Essex, but afterwards became a land agent in London; achieved fame as an educationalist and philanthropist and was the author of An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political (1812). Through his mother, Priscilla Bell, he was descended from the Quaker family of Robert Barclay, the apologist, and he was thus related to F. D. Bell (q.v.). Owing to the straitened circumstances of his father, Edward and several of his brothers lived for part of their childhood with their grandmother at Tottenham. She was a noted philanthropist. The boys went first to Haigh's school. At that early age Edward showed a perverseness and intractability which increased in his youth and was the cause of his leaving each of the schools to which he was sent. He left Haigh's in Dec 1807 for Westminster, where he had many fights and difficulties, and eventually refused to go back. Thence to the High School at Edinburgh, which he left in 1811, stubbornly refusing to go back.

In 1813 he was admitted at Gray's Inn, but in the following year he became private secretary to the Hon William Noel Hill, son of Lord Berwick, and then envoy to the court of Turin. He travelled a good deal as a king's messenger and saw much of fashionable life in Italy and Paris. Having made the acquaintance of Eliza Susan Pattle, the heiress of a Canton merchant, Thomas Charles Pattle (deceased), they eloped and were married at Edinburgh (1816). The mother and uncles of the girl were won over, and through the influence of Hill the Lord Chancellor not only sanctioned the marriage, but made the most liberal settlement on Wakefield. He was to receive from £1,500 to £2,000 a year, independent of any private property of his own and subject to no control, the allowance to be increased by £2,000 a year at the death of his mother-in-law. The couple went to Genoa on a diplomatic mission, and then back to Turin. Wakefield became secretary to the legation, where his brother William was also employed. There Wakefield's first child, Susan Priscilla, was born (1817). The mother died on 5 Jul 1820, after the birth of the second child, Edward Jerningham.

Meanwhile Wakefield had been employed as attache and secretary-general at the embassy in Paris, where they saw much of fashionable life. In 1824 his father married Frances, the daughter of the Rev Dr Davies, headmaster of the Macclesfield Grammar School. Wakefield and his brother visited this family at Macclesfield, and through them became aware of the existence of a wealthy heiress, Ellen, the daughter of William Turner, a manufacturer, of Shrigley, Cheshire, and sheriff of the county of Yorkshire. In Mar 1826 Edward and William Wakefield, by means of a ruse, persuaded the girl to leave the school and took her to Gretna Green, where Edward went through a form of marriage with her. He then took his wife to London, Dover and Calais, where they were overtaken by the girl's uncles and police agents. William had already been arrested in England, and Wakefield offered to return to face the charge of abduction. They were tried at the Lancaster assizes, their stepmother, Frances Wakefield, and the servant, Thevenot, being also indicted; and were found guilty. On 14 May 1827 Edward and William were each sentenced to three years imprisonment, the former at Newgate and the latter at Lancaster. Frances was not sentenced. A bill was passed by Parliament to annul the marriage, which had not been consummated.

After his transfer to Newgate prison Wakefield was permitted to see his children and to take an active part in their education. In his prison surroundings he saw much of the seamy side of life, and became interested in trying to reform aspects which seemed unnecessarily harsh. In 1830 he wrote an essay, The Condemned Sermon (which was published in Popular Politics in 1837), and in 1831 he wrote Facts Relating to the Punishment of Death in the Metropolis. The public were shocked by some of his disclosures, and certain reforms which he suggested were carried into effect. It was here, too, that Wakefield entered upon that close study of the subject of colonisation which was to issue in a masterly thesis a few years later. He investigated the Swan river failure, which he was convinced was due to the dispersal of the settlers over too wide an area by the granting of vast estates to wealthy emigrants in the neighbourhood of the settlement. From this he developed his theory that land should be sold at too high a price to enable the labourers too readily to become landowners, thus depriving the land of its due supply of labour. He elaborated his system in the sketch of a proposed colony which appeared in a series of articles in the Morning Chronicle (Aug-Oct 1829). In the same year was published his book, A Letter from Sydney, together with an Outline of a System of Colonisation. In this book (edited by Robert Gouger) he insisted that all land in the colony should be sold, and that there should be a tax on rents of lands already sold and on future sales to form an emigration fund, which should be applied to the introduction of a due proportion of labourers for the needs of the settlement. He now abandoned his fixed price of £2 per acre for land, and suggested that the 'sufficient price' must be fixed according to the conditions of each settlement. In Apr 1830 he published (in the Spectator) 'The Cure and Prevention of Pauperism by means of Systematic Colonisation.' Shortly after his release (which took place in May) he formed the National Colonisation Society, which consisted of a small select band of thinkers, and absorbed Gouger's Emigration Society. The first pamphlet, A Statement of the Principles and Objects of the Proposed National Society for the Cure and Prevention of Pauperism by Means of Systematic Colonisation, appeared in 1830. In 1831 Lord Goderich became Secretary of State for the Colonies (with Lord Howick as Under-secretary), and in regulations published shortly afterwards it was provided that henceforth all land in New South Wales should be sold at not less than 5s per acre. In 1831 Gouger and Wakefield brought forward the South Australia project and obtained the approval of Howick, with the proviso that the governor of the settlement should be appointed by the government and not by the chartered company. Goderich, however, did not approve the scheme (30 May 1832). In 1833, when Wakefield published his England and America; a Comparison of the Social and Political State of both Nations, the Society had 42 members, including Charles Buller, John Stuart Mill, John Hutt, Colonel R. Torrens, Sir F. Burdett, and Sir J. C. Hobhouse. It was revitalised by this publication. At the end of the year the South Australian Association was formed, with Buller, Torrens and Roebuck on the committee. Wakefield, restrained by the consciousness of his too recent misdemeanour and its punishment, remained discreetly in the background; but his brother Daniel (q.v.) assisted in drafting the articles of association. The Duke of Wellington approved the scheme, and Wakefield urged, in recognition of his interest, that the chief town of the settlement should be named after him.

The serious illness of his daughter Nina (Priscilla) now took Wakefield to Lisbon, where to his intense grief she died on 12 Feb 1835. His personal life was wrapped up in the two children, and Nina had become his confidant in schemes and economic speculations which were beyond the comprehension of most young women. Wakefield brought back to England with him a Portuguese girl, Leocadia de Oliveira, who had helped to soothe the last days of his daughter. He educated her and brought her to New Zealand, where she married. On his return to England Wakefield found that changes had been made in the South Australian scheme which he considered fatal. He fell out with Gouger, and Torrens was unable to effect a reconciliation. The price fixed for the sale of land, 12s an acre, he considered too low. When he himself was unable to sell the land at that price, George Fife Angas came forward with a joint stock company which took the necessary area at 12s. Wakefield now withdrew from the South Australian scheme and turned his attention to New Zealand, Torrens continuing as chairman of the commissioners. In Jun 1836 Wakefield gave valuable evidence before the select committee on methods of disposing of land in the colonies. This evidence was published in 1841 for the government of Texas. The select committee recommended that the upset price should be a permanent principle of future colonial regulations. As a result of the evidence given by Wakefield at this inquiry the New Zealand Association was constituted at a meeting at his house on 22 May 1837. It soon announced its intention of settling New Zealand, and thus came into immediate conflict with the Church Missionary Society, which strongly opposed the foundation of a British colony in New Zealand. In a book published under the auspices of the Association in 1837, entitled The British Colonisation of New Zealand, Wakefield proposed making treaties with the native tribes for the cession of territory and all other necessary activities. Urged by the missionary societies, the Colonial Office, now under the strong control of Stephen as permanent under-secretary, dismissed the proposal (Jun 1837) because it involved the acquisition of sovereignty in New Zealand, which would inevitably issue in the conquest and extermination of the native race. The Secretary of State (Lord Glenelg) was, however, so impressed by accounts of lawlessness amongst whites in New Zealand that he informed Lord Durham that he would be willing to consent to the incorporation of a company by royal charter so long as the government had the right of veto over the personnel of the directorate and officials. Wakefield having assured him that the Association assumed no pecuniary risk and did not expect pecuniary gain, he said he would not oppose the bill (5 Feb 1838). Both the Church Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Missionary Society petitioned against the bill, and the missionary influence in Parliament and the country was so strong that the select committee of the House of Lords (at which Wakefield produced a Maori witness, Nayti) reported against it. The best way to further the civilisation of New Zealand, it recommended, was to support the existing missions there. Wakefield was in Canada at the time when the bill was being discussed in Parliament, and it was defeated by 92 votes to 32. Thus ended the Association's scheme of appointing commissioners in New Zealand and making treaties with the natives or exercising criminal jurisdiction. In 1836 Wakefield's friends made an effort to find him a seat in the House of Commons, and he actually issued an address to the electors of Birmingham strongly approving the reform bill, and hoping to see universal suffrage, the ballot, annual elections and three-year parliaments.

Having withdrawn from his parliamentary ambitions, he took part in forming the New Zealand Association, and in the same year brought about the select committee on transportation, which warmly endorsed his principles.

In Jan 1838 he accepted a position on Durham's staff for Canada. Buller was chief secretary, and Wakefield was invited to accompany the mission really to investigate the management of crown lands. But for the veto of the Colonial Office he would have been appointed commissioner of crown lands. In fact, Buller was commissioner, but Wakefield took charge of the land commission, the registry of titles and the commutation of feudal tenures. When he arrived in Canada in the middle of 1838 (some time after Durham), the rebellion of 1837 was still a recent memory and he had unique opportunities of discussing the grievances of the colonists. He failed to see the rebel Papineau, though he made a journey to Saratoga for that purpose, but he soon formed the opinions that the trouble in Canada was a racial war; that the French Canadians were a poor class and the country must be made English by every means. Durham had humanely dispensed with the trial of rebels in prison in favour of exiling to Bermuda eight of the leaders. His enemies in England seized on the fact that Bermuda was outside his jurisdiction and the government weakly disallowed the ordinance. Disgusted at this desertion of him after a promise of full support, he resigned (25 Sep). Wakefield defended Durham with the greatest energy. Fearing that his report would be mutilated by the government to cover its own faults, he disregarded official propriety and communicated the greater part of it to The Times before Parliament received it. The substance of the Report on the Affairs of British North America (which was addressed to Glenelg on 31 Jan 1839) appeared in The Times on 8 Feb. It proposed the reunion of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada as a prelude to the inauguration of responsible government. Durham's enemies refused him credit for the report ('Wakefield thought it, Buller wrote it, and Durham signed it'), but the refusal was malevolent. Durham, an extremely able man, both thought and wrote. Wakefield was responsible for the appendix on land-reform, where Durham was his pupil; but Wakefield at that time had no comprehension of the principle of responsible government, such as both Durham and Buller displayed; and the statement of this principle was in fact the essence of the report. Wakefield later appropriated it as part of his 'system.' His land-policy was divorced from Canadian reality.

On his return to England late in 1838 Wakefield found a new impetus to the New Zealand project in the scheme of de Thierry (q.v.) Though the proposal, as communicated by George F. Angas, envisaged a sovereignty in de Thierry's own person, there was already a widespread fear of French designs in New Zealand. When Lord Glenelg went out of office (Feb 1839) he left a minute recommending that action be taken. His successor (Lord Normanby) refusing to move, the New Zealand Company hastened its plans, selected Colonel W. H. Wakefield as leader of the proposed settlement in New Zealand (28 Mar 1839), and arranged for the despatch of the expeditionary ship, the Tory. She left the river on 25 Apr rather hurriedly, lest the government should intervene. When Normanby refused letters of introduction to the governors of New South Wales and Tasmania Wakefield feared some more definite sign of disapproval. There is a legend, lacking proof, that he hastened to Plymouth to despatch the ship. That done, he established himself in the Company's headquarters in Broad street buildings, and throughout the year was the directing spirit in all the negotiations with the Colonial Office. In Feb 1840 Captain Hobson concluded the Treaty of Waitangi and took office as Lieutenant-governor of New Zealand.

Wakefield became a director of the Company on 9 Apr 1840, and a few weeks later he persuaded the board to adopt the name 'Wellington' for the first town in recognition of the Duke's assistance. He arranged a great meeting of shipowners, bankers and merchants of the city of London to urge the Government to take measures to preserve the 'long established sovereignty of the British crown in New Zealand.' Before the select committee of the House of Lords Wakefield gave evidence, the value of which was acknowledged by the chairman (Lord Eliot) at a public dinner at Plymouth on 5 Nov. In Sep the directors, on his advice, applied to Lord John Russell for a charter. Stephen agreed, and Wakefield and Lord Petre were appointed to negotiate with Russell as to the terms. On 26 Oct Russell agreed to issue a charter for 40 years, with increased capital and more powers, and the Company was to receive four acres of land in the Colony for every pound of expenditure incurred in colonising. The charter was dated 12 Feb 1841. In Dec 1841 Wakefield again visited Canada to look after an interest which he had acquired in a land company. While there he was elected (Nov 1842) to represent in the House of Assembly of Lower Canada the French-speaking county of Beauharnois, the electors of which appreciated what he had done to secure for them a share in their administration. The governor, Sir Charles Bagot, regarded him as 'a vindictive, as well as subtle serpent,' and was careful to have nothing to do with him; but his confidential advice to Bagot's successor, Sir Charles Metcalfe, in Metcalfe's conflict with ministers on the subject of responsible government, earned for him the hatred of the Canadian Radicals and the title of 'arch-traitor.' His perception in Canadian politics was nevertheless sometimes shrewd, though in the responsible government controversy he was clearly fighting against the future. Metcalfe had declined to consult his ministers in the making of appointments. Wakefield supported the governor, for reasons which he set forth in his pamphlet, A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government of Canada, by a Member of the Provincial Parliament. He came back to England (1844) to find the Company once more at war with the Colonial Office over the interpretation of the agreement as regards the allocation of grants of land. A select committee appointed by the House of Commons upheld the Company on every point except its 'highly irregular and improper conduct' in sending out settlers in defiance of the authority of the crown. Lord Stanley (the Secretary of State) would not, however, accept the Company's contention that the Maori possessed only a qualified dominion in New Zealand. In Mar and Jun 1845 there were stormy debates in Parliament. Earl Grey became Secretary of State in Jun 1846. Wakefield had a discouraging interview with him at Buller's house in Jul, and a week or two later suffered an apoplectic stroke as the result of overwork and excitement (15 Aug 1846). This placed him hors de combat for some years, though he continued to attend meetings. In May 1847 Buller made an agreement with Grey under which the Company should receive a new loan and come under government control. Wakefield protested against government control, but was in no state of health to fight, and retired to undergo the water cure at Great Malvern. His enthusiasm in colonisation was revived by the Church of England proposal to settle a colony in New Zealand, and by a meeting with John Robert Godley (q.v.), whom he importuned to lend his influence to the scheme. Godley acceded (30 Nov 1847), and Wakefield transferred to him sufficient stock (£500) to qualify him as a director. The site proposed for the settlement was Wairarapa.

Wakefield was now writing topics regularly for the Spectator. Late in 1848 he retired to France (with A. J. Allom, q.v.) to finish his book on the Art of Colonisation, in which he hoped to establish his claim as the author of the school of thought now almost triumphant. The book was published in Feb 1849. He resigned from the directorate of the Company. Earl Grey about this time submitted to Durham a scheme for a colony in Canada, which Wakefield criticised and showed to be impracticable. Early in 1849 he drew up the heads of the articles of association for the Canterbury settlement, which being done, he wrote to F. D. Bell (his kinsman) in New Zealand to say that he was now determined to proceed thither, since his work in England was finished. He arranged for the publication of the Canterbury Papers and, the land sales being insufficient to justify proceeding, he arranged a personal guarantee of £15,000 by Lord Lyttelton, Sir John Simeon, Lord Richard Cavendish and himself. Having worked with his accustomed zeal until the first four ships of the Canterbury settlement had passed down the Channel, he then turned to the New Zealand constitution. On 8 Feb 1850 Lord John Russell proposed in parliament that provision be made for the better government of her Majesty's Australian colonies. The bill was passed on 13 May, a similar one being promised for New Zealand in the following year. In the drafting of the New Zealand constitution some share was taken by Wakefield, Fox, Weld, Sewell, Adderley (afterwards Lord Norton) and Lyttelton. In 1851 it was impossible to bring in the bill, but it came in 1852. In Jun Wakefield, fearing its destruction by the opposition of Molesworth, petitioned both houses in favour of it.

The act received the royal assent on 30 Jun. Wakefield sailed for New Zealand in the Minerva in Oct 1852, arriving in Lyttelton on 2 Feb 1853. He became involved almost immediately in a controversy with Governor Grey over his land regulations of 4 Mar 1853, in which the price was fixed at 10s per acre, reducible to 5s in cases where the land was not easily accessible. Wakefield wrote home characteristically that 'he worked the newspapers and went to law with the Governor.' Thereafter he was at odds with Grey over alterations in the constitution and his delay in having Parliament constituted, and later in summoning the General Assembly to meet. Wakefield was elected a member of Parliament for Hutt (19 Aug 1853) and of the Wellington Provincial Council, also for Hutt (5 Sep), defeating by a very large majority candidates who supported the policy of Grey. Grey left the Colony on 31 Dec 1853. The Provincial Council met on 28 Oct 1853 and, having elected Clifford to be Speaker, had good reason to approve its choice. So that when Parliament assembled seven months later Wakefield had already been in consultation with other members and persuaded them to elect Charles Clifford (q.v.), though a Catholic, to the chair of the House of Representatives.

Colonel Wynyard, the administrator, was inexperienced and lacking in initiative, and Wakefield soon appeared as the Machiavelli of Parliament. The House had no sooner shaken down to its task when he moved (2 Jun 1854) to establish full responsible government. Swainson (the Attorney-general) ruled that the Governor had no power to introduce the responsible system, but Wakefield had won his point and was prepared to await developments. He wrote Home that he was happy in having the full realisation of all he had hoped and longed for. Friction occurred between the responsible ministers and the permanent officials who sat with them in the executive and whom, according to Wakefield's ruling, the Governor had no power to dismiss since they were appointed by the crown. Wynyard therefore accepted the resignation of ministers and consulted Wakefield, who once more appeared as the enemy of the system he had always advocated. Provoked by his rather tactless conduct, the House passed a resolution (proposed by one of the executive, FitzGerald) protesting against the acceptance of advice from a private member of Parliament. On the intimation that Wynyard intended to prorogue Parliament (also on the advice of Wakefield), the House passed a resolution demanding the full grant of responsible government and the removal of Wakefield from his position as unofficial adviser. Wakefield's supporters walked out of the chamber in the hope of preventing the motion being carried. He withdrew then from his unique position, and a fortnight later Parliament met and passed supply for a ministry led by T. S. Forsaith (q.v.), with Travers, Macandrew and E. J. Wakefield as colleagues.

On 8 Dec the Secretary of State approved the grant of responsible government. Wakefield retired at the general election (1855). He was re-elected to the Provincial Council, but attended less frequently owing to failing health. His most noteworthy intervention in this period was at the election of 1857, when his son (E. J. Wakefield) made a determined attempt to capture the provincial government. Thereafter he lived in enforced retirement at his home in Wellington, his principal companion in the evening of his life being Alice, daughter of his brother Daniel, and later the wife of Harold Freeman. He died on 16 May 1862, and was buried in the Sydney street cemetery.

E. Irving Carlyle, in the Dictionary of National Biography, says: "The importance of Wakefield's achievements in colonial matters can hardly be overestimated. The tangible fruits of his labours are the least part of their result, for all subsequent colonial development has followed the direction of his thought. He brought to the subject for the first time the mind of a philosopher and statesman, equally fitted for framing a comprehensive theory and for directing its working in practical detail. The great flaw in his character was lack of scruple in selecting the means for attaining his ends. This imperfection of character brought about serious disaster in his private affairs, and in his public life it prevented even his most devoted supporters from giving him their implicit confidence."

Wakefield's publications include: Swing Unmasked, or the Causes of Rural Incendiarism (1831), The Hangman and the Judge (1833), Popular Politics (1837).

G.B.O.P. 1836-45; N.Z.P.D. 1854-62; N.Z. Comy reports; Wakefield Letters in Canterbury Museum; N.Z.C., pass. (including many manuscript and draft letters in Wakefield's hand); E. J. Wakefield, Adventure; Harrop, Wakefield; Wakefield, New Zealand (p); Wakelin; O'Connor (p); Gisborne; Saunders; Rusden; E.G. Wakefield, op. cit.; Egerton; Sherrin and Wallace; Garnett (p); Godley, Letters; Lovat; J. Collier (introd. The Art of Colonisation, 1914); R. C. Mills, The Colonisation of Australia (1915); John Morley, Life of William Ewart Gladstone (1904); Hight and Bamford; Keith; Scholefield, Hobson; Ward (p); A. J. Harrop in The Press, Oct-Nov 1928; Stuart J. Reid; Lucas; Chester W. New, Lord Durham; Chester Martin, Empire and Commonwealth; W. P. Morrall, Colonial Policy of Peel and Russell; Fisher's Colonial Magazine, Jul 1844; Wellington Independent, 20 May 1862; Wellington Spectator, 5 Jan, 23 Jul 1853; Otago Daily Times, 30 Dec 1931; The Press, 1 May 1909, 12 Dec 1925.

Portrait: Bust by Joseph Durham, R.A., in Colonial Office (replica in Parliament House, Wellington); portrait by E. J. Collins and Richard Ai in Provincial Hall, Christchurch.

Reference: Volume 2, page 225

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