This collection story from the Nelson Provincial Museum contains a lesser-known source of historical insight, known as ephemeral or printed items that were generally created for a short-term purpose.
A property ad printed nearly 180 years ago sparked speculation about the history of one of Nelson’s earliest landowners, Mr John J Imrie.
When Karen Gorsuch, curator of the Nelson Provincial Museum last year, received a call from an Australian asking if the museum would be interested in receiving the leaflet, she did not expect it to lead back to Imrie, who was the first times came to the attention of the curatorial team in the 1980s.
The Australian caller told her he had inherited, from his late father, an old property auction advertisement for a house and four acres of land in the middle of Nelson. The property page advertised for sale Lot 270, located in Cambria St north of The Wood, along with the residential and outdoor houses built on it.
The Nelson Examiner printed the handout, indicating that, just as today, land and property would have been a topic of discussion among Nelson’s first Pākehā settlers. However, the nature of real estate advertising is remarkably different, and it promotes features such as a “brick chimney, furnace, birds and pigeon houses.”
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Nelson Provincial Museum, Bed Collection
Plan of the town of Nelson approved by Frederick Tuckett, Chief Surveyor, April 28, 1842, showing Cambria St in The Wood.
History continues in objects of all shapes and sizes. While museums are known for acquiring significant objects that were often deliberately made to withstand the test of time, they are also interested in what are known as ephemerals. Generally, these are printed items created for a short-term purpose only, such as tickets, menus, programs, posters and flyers for events, campaigns, elections, shows, goods and services.
“The survival of an 1843 pamphlet was enough for us to be interested in the item,” Gorsuch said. “The fragility of the newsprint makes his survival incredible, but this one was taken care of and stored, which may indicate that it had a special meaning for its previous owners.
Nelson Provincial Museum, Bett Loan Collection
Sarah Greenwood (1809 -1899) painted this watercolor by Nelson in December 1852.
“But it was the mention of Mr J Imrie that made us take extra note of this flyer. This led us to connect it to another story that made the ephemera even more fascinating. ”
Unreliable obituary investigated
In 1985, a local woman who was expecting visitors from Australia contacted Dawn Smith, then a librarian at the Nelson Provincial Museum. The woman told Smith her visitors had informed her that their ancestor, Mr John J Imrie, lived in Nelson and that they would like to find out more about his life here. Imrie’s descendants then sent a copy of his obituary, published in an Australian newspaper in May 1901, which served as the starting point for Smith’s investigations.
However, as Smith soon discovered, obituaries are not always accurate. Stories passed down from one generation to the next can change over time and when family legends make their way into an obituary, fiction about facts can triumph.
“The obituary was a fantastic story of shipwreck and escape,” Gorsuch said. “It claimed that Imrie was, among other things, a Scottish doctor who fought in the Peninsula and Spanish Wars, was awarded a Victoria Cross and then emigrated to New Zealand, where he obtained a quantity of land from the local Māori. bought, as well as being given a free grant from the British government. “
The obituary also claimed that he had overcome adversity – lost all his possessions in a shipwreck off the coast of Nelson – before continuing to build the first house in what later became the first city on the South Island.
The text of the obituary reads: “Suddenly a terrifying storm came and the ship struck a rock and broke in front of the owner’s eyes, and everything was lost, not a soul saved!”
Nelson Provincial Museum, Bett Loan Collection
A watercolor by Longueville, after Sir Francis Dillon Bell (1821-1898), “Nelson from above Saltwalter Bridge” 1845.
Smith’s interest was piqued by this story, but upon further investigation she found that some of the allegations in the article were incorrect; Mr Imrie did not fight in the wars and may not even have been a doctor.
However, there was evidence that Imrie arrived in New Zealand in 1841 and settled in Nelson shortly afterwards and acquired the property in The Wood. By locating him through newspaper reports and diary writers of the era, it appears that she ran a store in Bridge St with Alexander Perry under the name of JJ Imrie & Co.
His name also appeared in the diaries of JW Saxton, where he mentions that Imrie’s house had a “beautiful view” from both the right side to the sea and to the left to the Brook Street Valley, and a rock fountain near the door. ” Saxton concluded that it “made him more satisfied with New Zealand than I still was.”
quick exit
Despite the favorable vantage point of his house, Imrie did not stay long in Nelson and by August 1842 he dissolved the partnership with Alexander Perry, after which he began selling his possessions.
By the end of that year, a Mr. Frederick Kent issued a public notice, published in the Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle December 31, 1842, in which he stated that he would not be liable for any debts incurred by his wife, Emma Kent. “Now lived in open adultery with one John J Imrie, deceased shopkeeper for Mr A Perry, and passed under his name as his wife.”
Gorsuch said she found this clipping in Smith’s research file. There was no other evidence to substantiate the allegation, so it is not possible to say whether it influenced Imrie’s decision to leave Nelson.
Imrie’s house, land, household furniture and other possessions were then advertised for sale several times between July and September 1843.
Not long after the auction of the Cambria St property, Imrie, accompanied by his wife Etty (b. Bailey), left Nelson on a ship bound for Van Diemen’s Land on 30 September 1843 – just under two. years after he first arrived.
Gavin Bollard, one of John and Etty’s descendants, wrote on his blog about his “famous family members” and reported that the couple had 11 children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. It appears from these family records that at least two of the children were born before the couple arrived in Nelson. Their daughter Jessie was born in Nelson, while the remaining children were born after moving to Australia.
Bollard said that although it looked like a “very checkered life”, his great-grandfather, great-grandfather was “somewhat of a hero” to his family.
“He was a great storyteller with a vivid imagination, with his own experiences and he enchanted his grandchildren with stories of events that took place during his lifetime, which often expanded on certain events and placed himself in the story.
“He often mixed facts with fiction, including shipwrecks in which he was involved and wars in which he fought. His storytelling was so good that his children often believed him. They all thought he was a doctor, and it was only when research was done on him that we realized he had never completed the course and had never worked as a doctor. He is still referred to as Doctor Imrie in much of the literature that has been written about him. ”
Imrie ended his days in Queensland, where he died in 1901, aged 86 years. Now, 121 years after his death and almost 180 years after he sold his property and fled, Mr. Imrie’s leaflet returned to the shores of Te Tauihu.
The discovery of the real estate ad revived interest in the story of John J Imrie’s life and the time he spent in Nelson.
“As curators, we are interested in what we call ‘material culture,’ which the object itself tells us,” Gorsuch said. “But it’s a great example of how an object can reveal so much more.”