Edward Constable of Kent: A Settler's Life

Married at seventeen and widowed at eighteen, Edward left his Kentish hometown for London in search of work. He became an apprentice bricklayer, one of the worst jobs at the time. With his second wife Jane, he left England in the hope of a better life as one of New Zealand's first settlers. The anticipation and excitement prior to the voyage would soon fade and the enormity of what lay ahead would only be realised once he came ashore. Edward was one of the first landowners in Auckland, and in 1850 he built the Kentish Hotel in Waiuku. This historic hotel still holds the record as New Zealand's longest serving hotel with a liquor licence. During the 1860s his three flax mills became a crucial source of employment at a time of vast unemployment and poverty. As a pillar of society for many decades, Edward became known as the Father of Waiuku. After 20 years of marriage, without children to carry on his legacy, Edward's desperate solution was to return to England with Jane, and unknown to her, he married his niece. Bigamy was a criminal offence that could cost Edward his freedom and his livelihood. When they arrive back in New Zealand, he separates from Jane. But Jane also had a skeleton in the cupboard, as the new man in her life was a twice-convicted felon from the notorious Norfolk Island.