Charles de Thierry

Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry (1793 – 8 July 1864) was a nineteenth century adventurer who attempted to establish his own sovereign state in New Zealand in the years before British annexation.

Biography

De Thierry was from a French family that had fled to England following the revolution. He claims to have been born in 1793 while his parents were fleeing, probably in Grave in the Netherlands. Upon reaching England, his father Charles Antoine de Thierry, claimed the title of Baron.^[1]

De Thierry was enrolled at Magdalen College, Oxford and claimed to have transferred to a college of the University of Cambridge Cambridge. There, he met Hongi Hika, the Ngāpuhi chief who was visiting England, and the missionary Thomas Kendall. De Thierry subsequently arranged a purchase of 40,000 acres at Hokianga, in Northland, through Kendall.^[1]

After travels in North America and the Caribbean, de Thierry came to the Pacific in 1835. In the Marquesas Islands, he announced himself King of Nuku Hiva.^[1]

By 1837, de Thierry had reached Sydney, where he recruited some colonists to join him in his New Zealand possessions. Arriving at Hokianga, the local Maori rangatira (chiefs) Tāmati Wāka Nene and Eruera Maihi Patuone rejected his claims, but he was allowed to settle. His settlement was a failure. De Thierry continued to agitate for a French colony led by himself, but this activity was curtailed by the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.^[1]

De Thierry subsequently moved to Auckland, where he survived as a piano teacher until his sudden death on 8 July 1864.^[1]

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Raeside, J. D. (1 September 2010). "Thierry, Charles Philippe Hippolyte de – Biography". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t93/1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 

References

• Raeside, J.D. (1977). Sovereign Chief. Christchurch.