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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Captain William Cargill

Captain William Cargill , commonly known as the founder of Otago.was born in 1784 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the son of Mr. James Cargill, a Writer to the Signet. The ancestor of the family was one of the Scottish martyrs and a leader of the Covenanters; namely, Donald Cargill who was put to death in Edinburgh in 1688.in early life William Cargill entered the British Army, and, becoming a captian in the 74th Highlanders he served with them in Indian, and afterwards in the Peninsular war, for which he gained the medal and seven clasps. Though saverely wounded at the battle of Busaco.he was afterwards able to rejoin his regiment, and went through to the end of the war, finishing at the battle of Toulouse. in 1820 he retired from the Army, and was then in business in Edinburgh for some years; he was subsequently manager of a bank in England, and was otherwise variously employed till he took up the scheme for the settlement of Otago. After several years spent in promoting the scheme, captian Cangill at length sailed for New Zealand in the ship “John Wycliff,” Captain Daly, accompanied by the first dcatachment of settlers, and bringing with him his wife two of his sons and three daughters. They arrived at Port Chamers on the 23rd of March, 1848 and Captian Cargill at once assumed the leadership of the settlement, For some time afterwards he acted as agent for the New Zealand Company in Otago, and, on the establishment of the Provincial Govertnment in 1853. became the first Superintendent; he was unanimausly re-elected two years later, and continued to hold the office till the 3rd of Janauary, 1860.In the first General Assembly, which sat in Auckland, Captain Cargill represented Otago for four years resigning in 1859. He died on the 6th of August, 1860, aged seventy-six; Mrs Cargill lived ten years longer, when she, too, passed away in Dunedin, at the ripe old age of eighty-one.They had had a family of seventeen children, of Captain Cargill's daughters, the eldest, Christiana, married the late Mr.William Henry Cutten, who came outin the first ship.and was long well Known in Dunedin as Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, and as member of the Provincial Council and General Assembly, Mrs Cutten still resides in Dunedin, The second daughter, Anne married the late Hon. John Hyde Harris.barrister and solicitor, who filled the offices of District Judge and Superintendent of the provine, and also served in the Provincial and Legislative Councils.Mrs Harris died in 1881. Mrs Johnrobert, Who died in 1862.is still a resident of Dunedin.Of Captian Cargill's sons, two accompanied him when he first came to the colony. John the elder, married the eldest daughter of Mr.John, and had a large family. He was one of the earliest to ongage in sheepfarming and page 36 latterly held, in partnership with his son-in law, Mr.E.R.Anderson, one of the finest runs—the “Teviot:—in the south Island of New Zealand; it carried a very fine flock of over fifty thousand merino sheep. He died in British Columbia in 1898. The younger, Spencer, entered the Bengal Artillery, and transforred on the amalgamation to the Royal Artillery, from which he afterwards retired as Lientenant-Colonel. He now resides in Bengal. Artillery, and transforred on the emalgamation to the Royol Artillery, from which he afterwards retired as Lientemart-colonel. he now resides in Bengals.Another son, Mr, Edward B. Cargill, who arrived at Dunedin in 1847, is referred to at length elsewhere in these pages as an ex-mayour of the borough of Dunedin. Captain Cargill had other sons, the eldest, William Walter, being an eminent banker, who died in 1894 at the age of eighty. Another, Francis Alfred.was for many years an officer of the Oriental Bank Corporation in, and opened the branch ot that institution in Melbourne in 1852. Latterly he resided with his brother, Mr.E.B.Cargill. He is a widower, and has many children and grandchildren, some of whom are in New Zealand. Themas August another son, was also a banker, and was for some time in the West Indies, and afterwards in Sydeny. He died in Melbourne, in 1855. His widow died in Dunedin. in 1891, leaving a number of childern and grandchildren. Mr. E. B. Cargill died at “The Cliffs. near Dunedin, on the 9th of August, 1903, in his eightieth year. His wife and one daughter had predeceased him by many years, and he left a surviving family of four daughters—two in Dunedin, and two in Italy. The likness of Captain Cargill appears as a frontispiece to this volume.