Raglan Run: Number 1 (of 1854)

The Raglan run at first extended from the Branch River to the Wairau Gorge on the south-south-east side of the Wairau River and was part of the run number 10 in the 1849 list issued by the New Zealand Company. This was the land occupied by Dr John Henry Cooper and Nathaniel George Morse since 1846. After a year or two the partnership was dissolved with Morse moving down the valley to take up Wantwood (Run No. 3), thus leaving Cooper in full possession.

On a map drawn in 1850 Christie is shown as being in occupation This is thought to be Charles Christie who, with Charles Heaphy, did some exploring in this area just prior to this date.

By 1854, when the fourteen year depasturage licences were issued, Dr Joseph Foord Wilson was the licensee, but by then the licence was for the Raglan Run only and the eastern boundary was the present position not far to the east of the present Raglan Homestead. In the census for 1845 Dr Wilson is shown in two places, (a) in Nile Street as a tenant on Native Reserve sections 521 and 522, and (b) in Hardy Street on section 438. It is thought that he was a surgeon rather than a general practitioner for in the 1849 census he is shown as a surgeon in Tory Street. In 1855 he transferred the licence for the Raglan Run to George William Schroder, an early merchant in Nelson who, in 1858. transferred it to Dr Thomas Renwick and Samuel Robinson who added this to their Birch Hill Run. The runs were united and worked as one undertaking until the Crown took over about the turn of the century. The land was then divided up and released to other settlers under a different tenure.

The land on the opposite side of the Wairau River to Raglan which was taken up by Cooper and Morse and called the Top House run, is not mentioned on the list of Marlborough runs, or as they were known at that time, Wairau runs. Either it was held on the list of Nelson runs or, perhaps the licensee surrendered it to the Crown for in 1856 it was gazetted as a Stock Resting Area under the nominal care of the Superintendent of the Nelson Province.