FITZGERALD, ROBERT APPLEYARD was a planter in the West Indies. He came to New Zealand in 1840 and was appointed registrar of the Supreme Court and manager of intestate estates (Jul 1841). In 1842 he was registrar of the county of Eden and a member of the board of audit. His daughter was married (1842) to Willoughby Shortland (q.v.). In 1844 Fitzgerald was appointed a commissioner to investigate land claims and registrar of deeds. He was an entertaining public speaker and took a prominent part in the affairs of Kororareka. Later he was in business as a commission agent in Auckland for a few years and then returned to Australia. In 1849 he engaged in a costly expedition to New Caledonia to fish beche de mer, having under his command the schooners Minerva and Sir John Franklin and the sloop Mary. Having established a station on shore at Balade, he sailed for Sydney to arrange his finances. Returning in the schooner Elizabeth, he found that 200 natives had been killed in an attack on the station, and that Captain Rabey and the crew of the Mary had been massacred. Fitzgerald had great difficulty in fighting his way out of the reefs to the open sea. He returned to Sydney to face bankruptcy and re-establish himself.

N.Z. Gaz.; Scholefield, Henry Williams; Sydney Morning Herald, 12, 24, 28 Jan 1850; N.Z. Herald, 8 Jun 1895.

Reference: Volume 1, page 146

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