VALPY, WILLIAM HENRY (1793-1852) was born at Forbury, Reading, Berkshire, the son of the Rev Richard Valpy, D.D., an eminent schoolmaster who edited a well-known Latin grammar and assisted in the publication of the Variorum Classics. Valpy was educated at Forbury school, Reading, and went into the Royal Navy at the age of 14. He did not like the sea, and an exchange was effected with his brother (afterwards Captain Anthony Valpy) whereby he went to Haileybury to prepare for the East India Company. Entering the Company's service as a writer (1812), he held office in the board of commissioners and the mint, and in 1820 became collector at Cawnpore. In 1832 he was collector and magistrate at Shahabad, and in 1833 magistrate at Saran and agent to the Governor-general at Benares. He retired in 1837 as commissioner of revenue and circuit there, and settled down at Bath. Later he lived at Cheltenham, where he interested himself in the establishment of a Church of England training school.

Valpy's health had suffered from his stay in India, and he was advised to leave England. By upbringing and the possession of capital he was eminently suited to be one of the gentry, whom Wakefield insisted upon as a necessary element in a British colony, and he took with him a strong staff of house and farm servants and the mechanical equipment for a sawmill and a flourmill. Valpy arrived in Otago by the Ajax (7 Jan 1849) and selected his farm of 120 acres south of Dunedin, giving it the name of 'Forbury.' He also acquired land on the flat upon which he conferred the name of 'Caversham' after the birthplace of his mother. Early in 1851, with due ceremony, the foundation stone was laid of a fine stone house at Forbury. There Valpy farmed in English style, through the medium of a bailiff, and each year entertained his friends and servants at harvest homes. On these occasions all the children of the neighbourhood were feted, toasts were drunk, and finally the health of the bailiff, 'whose stackyard testified to the excellence of his farming.' Besides the farm, Valpy had runs at Horseshoe Bush and Waihola (the latter under the charge of his son, W. H. Valpy, who in 1852 shipped the first fat stock by sea from Otago to Canterbury, and made a long overland journey between the two provinces). The sawmill and flourmill which were erected in the Leith Valley started on 11 May 1850, Peter McGill being the miller and J. Fulton foreman of the sawmill.

Valpy was a good employer, and a man of the highest public spirit. Though an Episcopalian, he was a warm supporter of Burns. Highly cultured, and having long administrative experience, he was a valuable asset to the community, but he was too refined and sensitive for the conditions of a young colony. In 1850 Sir George Grey, on a visit to Dunedin, discovered that Valpy's views on self-government were somewhat similar to his own; he too was not fully convinced that the people of the young colonies were ripe for self-government, and he offered Valpy a seat in the nominated Legislative Council (under the ordinance of 1850). A largely-attended public meeting (in May 1851) passed resolutions, worded in terms of affectionate respect, urging Valpy not to accept the nomination, 'it being inconsistent with the feeling and principles of the Otago settlers to have anything to do with an exclusively nominated council, or that they should have the remotest appearance of being represented without their actually being so.' Cargill, who was in the chair, said there was no man in New Zealand who would not delight to honour Valpy; he would probably be elected as soon as there was an elective body to receive representatives. Valpy, who was not present, received a deputation with dignity and consideration, but was not moved from his position. 'It has given me much pain,' he wrote afterwards, 'so widely to differ from some of my fellow settlers, and far more would it do so were I to be considered as betraying their interests, towards which I hope I have never shown myself indifferent.' As it happened, he did not take his seat in the Council, nor indeed was he gazetted a member of it. He died at Forbury on 25 Sep 1852.

One of Valpy's early interests in Otago was to help to provide a newspaper for the settlement. When the Otago News closed down, he advanced £150 to purchase the plant. It was thus made available for the Otago Witness, which appeared a few weeks later.

Cycl. NZ, iv; Otago Witness, 2 Oct 1852; Hocken, Otago.

Reference: Volume 2, page 210

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