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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. Thomas Beckham

Mr. Thomas Beckham was one of the best known men in the Province of Auckland, in which he long held the offices of Resident Magistrate and District Judge. He had filled the office of magistrate even before the colony was formally founded, as his first appointment bore a date anterior to the arrival of Governor Hobson. He had landed with his regiment (the 28th North Gloucester Regiment of Foot) in Sydney, in the year 1835, and was sent to reside as a magistrate at Hokianga, in October, 1840. The population of Hokianga at that time did not exceed a hundred persons. Mr. Beckham was stationed there for a year, and was then appointed magistrate at Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, where he remained till the close of Heke's war. When the war broke out he organised and took command of a corps of volunteers, and rendered good service at a time of great public emergency. He remained in the Bay of Islands district until the town of Kororareka was sacked and burnt in 1844–45. After the Constitution Act came into operation Mr. Beckham became a member of the Auckland Provincial Council, and he also sat in the House of Representatives for the City of Auckland from 1856 to 1859. Mr. Beckham had been a schoolfellow of Sir George Grey's, and was always deeply attached to that statesman. He died on the 31st of July, 1875, at his residence, Grafton Road, Auckland, at the age of sixty-five years, leaving behind him a widow, a son and three daughters, and an honoured memory as an upright man and a conscientious magistrate.