passed in complete retirement, and he died at Wellington on 16 May 1862. By his wife, Eliza Susan Pattle, he had a son—who is noticed below—and a daughter, Susan Priscilla, who died before her father.
The importance of Wakefield's achievements in colonial matters can hardly be overestimated. The tangible fruits of his labours are the least part of their result, for all subsequent colonial development has followed the direction of his thought. He brought to the subject for the first time the mind of a philosopher and statesman, equally fitted for framing a comprehensive theory and for directing its working in practical detail. The great flaw in his character was lack of scruple in selecting the means for attaining his ends. This imperfection of character brought about serious disaster in his private affairs, and in his public life it prevented even his most devoted supporters from giving him their implicit confidence. There is a portrait of Wakefield in the provincial hall at Christchurch, and a bust was placed in the colonial office in 1875. Another portrait, engraved in 1826, is prefixed to Edward Wakefield's ‘New Zealand after Fifty Years,’ 1897.
Besides the works mentioned, Wakefield was author of:
- ‘Swing Unmasked, or the causes of Rural Incendiarism,’ London, 1831, 8vo.
- ‘The Hangman and the Judge,’ London, 1833, 8vo.
- ‘Popular Politics,’ London, 1837, 12mo.
He also edited Adam Smith's ‘Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,’ London, 1835–9, 4 vols. 12mo, with a commentary.
Edward Jerningham Wakefield (1820–1879), writer on New Zealand, the only son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, was born on 25 June 1820. He accompanied his father to Canada in 1838, and in the next year sailed to New Zealand in the Tory. He remained in New Zealand until 1844, and kept a diary of the proceedings of the settlers. This he published in 1845 on his return to England, under the title ‘Adventures in New Zealand’ (London, 2 vols. 8vo). Resettling in New Zealand with his father in 1852, he was elected to the house of representatives for a Canterbury constituency in 1854, and was a member of the executive council from August to September. He was again a member of the house of representatives in 1876, and died on 3 March 1879. He was married and had three daughters. With John Robert Godley [q. v.] he edited his father's correspondence concerning the foundation of the Canterbury settlement, under the title ‘The Founders of Canterbury,’ Christchurch, 1868, 8vo (Mennell, Dict. of Australasian Biogr.; Lyttelton Times, 26 March 1879, monthly suppl.)
[Foster's Royal Lineage of Noble and Gentle Families, ii. 840–5; Garnett's Edward Gibbon Wakefield, ‘Builders of Greater Britain,’ 1898, with portrait; Harcus's South Australia, 1876; Hodder's George Fife Angas, 1891; Hodder's Hist. of South Australia, 1893, i. 21–3, 28, 46; Rees's Life of Sir George Grey, 1892, i. 104; Gisborne's New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen, 1897, pp. 62, 63, 78, 79; Reeves's Long White Cloud, 1898; Garran's Australian Atlas; Rusden's Hist. of New Zealand, 1883; Sherrin and Wallace's Early Hist. of New Zealand (Brett's Hist. Ser.) 1890.]
WAKEFIELD, GILBERT (1756–1801), scholar and controversial writer, born on 22 Feb. 1756 in the parsonage-house of St. Nicholas, Nottingham, was the third son of George Wakefield, for seventeen years rector of that parish, and subsequently for nine years vicar of Kingston-on-Thames, where he died in 1776. He was descended paternally from the Wakefields of Stakenhill, Derbyshire, and maternally from the families of Coke and Russell. At seven years old he began Latin at the free school—now the high school—of Nottingham; and at thirteen, on the removal of his father and family to Kingston, he was sent to the free school of that town, of which Richard Wooddeson [see under Woodeson, Richard] was the master. In 1772 Wakefield obtained a scholarship at Jesus College, Cambridge, where his father also had been educated. He had a distinguished university career. He found algebra ‘odious beyond conception,’ but learned enough of it to graduate B.A. as second wrangler in 1776; and in the same year he won one of the chancellor's medals, at that time, and until the institution of the classical tripos in 1824, the highest honour obtainable in classics. He was immediately elected fellow of his college. In the following year, and again in 1778, he won the second of the members' prizes for a Latin essay.
Early in 1778 Wakefield was ordained deacon. From a belief that he undertook the responsibility without sufficient knowledge, Wakefield afterwards characterised his ordination as ‘the most disingenuous action of my whole life, utterly incapable of palliation or apology.’ His clerical life was short but hard-working. He was curate for a few months to Mr. Watson, rector of Stockport, and for a few months more held a curacy in Liverpool, where he interested himself on behalf of the prisoners almost daily brought in by privateers, and endeavoured to rouse public opinion against
