BARNICOAT, JOHN WALLIS (1814-1905) was born at Falmouth, Cornwall, educated at the Falmouth proprietary school and articled to a civil engineer. He practised his profession in England until 1841, when he came to Nelson in the Lord Auckland (arriving on 23 Feb 1842).

There he practised for a while in partnership with a fellow passenger, T. J. Thompson, and was employed by the New Zealand Company surveying lands at Waimea and Moutere. He was so employed at Wairau when Te Rauparaha and Rangiheata interposed (Jun 1843). Barnicoat was one of those who escaped, finding his way with Frederick Tuckett (q.v.) to Cloudy Bay and back to Nelson. He then surveyed the Motueka and Takaka districts, and in Mar 1844 explored with Tuckett the whole of the east coast of the South Island as far as Stewart Island to find a suitable site for the New Edinburgh settlement. With Davison he surveyed the Waikouaiti harbour. Later in the year he settled on his own land near Richmond. In 1846 Barnicoat explored the Pelorus and in 1850 (with John Tinline) he tried to find a route from Nelson to the Wairau.

Barnicoat in 1853 was elected unopposed for Waimea East to the Nelson Provincial Council, in which he sat throughout the provincial period (1853-75). He was speaker (1858-75) and deputy-superintendent in 1875. In 1862 he contested the superintendency (Robinson 593 votes; Barnicoat 218). He was chairman of the Waimea road board and for many years of the Waimea county council. Barnicoat was keenly interested in education, being a trustee under the Nelson trust funds act and one of the founders of Nelson College, of which he was a governor for 40 years from 1856. He was a member and chairman of the board of education, a trustee of the Richmond institute (1846), a member of the archdeaconry board (1856) and of the first Nelson synod (1859); an assessor of the bishop's court, a member of many diocesan trusts, diocesan treasurer (1875-97) and a member of the General Synod (1862). In 1883 Barnicoat was called to the Legislative Council, of which he was a member to 1902. He married (1849) Rebecca Lee, a daughter of William Hodgson (q.v.). Barnicoat died on 2 Feb 1905. (See R. C. KIRK.) His daughter, CONSTANCE ALICE BARNICOAT (1877-1922), was educated at Nelson Girls' College and Canterbury University College (B.A. 1895). She studied languages, was private secretary to W. T. Stead (1898-1903), and for many years acted as special foreign correspondent for English and New Zealand newspapers. She married (1913) Julian Grande, who wrote her life in 1925.

N.Z.C.; Hocken, Otago; N.Z.P.D.; Grande, op. cit. (p); Buick, Old Marlborough; Broad; Cycl. N.Z., v (p); Who's Who N.Z., 1908; The Colonist 3 Feb 1905.

Reference: Volume 1, page 36

🌳 Further sources