Francis Owen LEATHART

Occupation Details

• Francis' occupation was Ships Captain.

  • Occupation Notes
    • Francis went from UK to Australia in 1830's and was a ships captain. He made a number of trips from Sydney across the Tasman in 1830's and 40's trading in whale meat and oil, flax, wheat etc.
      Details of arrivals and departures
      Arrival - Dublin Packet - New Zealand to Sydney 1836 May 6
      Arrival - Dublin Packet - New Zealand to Sydney 1836 Nov 24
      Arrival - Dublin Packet - to Bay of Islands 1837 Nov 16
      Departure - Dublin Packet - Bay of Islands to (not listed) 1837 Dec 2
      Departure - Success - Sydney to New Zealand 1838 Mar 17
      Departure - Edward - Sydney to New Zealand 1838 Oct 17
      Captain - Arrival - Dublin Packet - New Zealand to Sydney 1838 Feb 11
      F - Departure - Dublin Packet - Sydney to Bay of Islands 1836 Jun 26
      Departure - Draper - Sydney to Whaling Grounds 1847 Jan 6
      
      A ship that Francis Owen Owned a bit of info;
      
      HARRIET LEATHART, schooner: The vessel sailed from Manukau on October 7, 1848 for Wanganui, off which she arrived on October 17, having experienced a succession of gales on the voyage. The tide being low, the schooner stood off for the night and at 2pm on the 18th again approached the harbour, it being then near high water, but found an unusually heavy sea on the bar and wind blowing directly off shore. At 7pm the wind chopped round, but the state of the tide again prevented the Harriet Leathart from taking the bar, and the vessel stood to sea. At 11pm the wind having increased to a gale, the vessel wore round in an endeavour to make the harbour. The schooner's principal sails were blown away at midnight, and at 2:30am on October 19 a heavy sea struck the schooner, and she touched the ground, the next sea sweeping her decks. A heavy sea swept her on to the beach at 3am, and all hands then went below to await daylight. News of the wreck having been carried to Wanganui everything on board the schooner was saved by the prompt assistance of the townspeople and the military. At the next tide the schooner filled and bilged, and afterwards broke up.
      
      The Harriet Leathart, registered No. 5 of 1848 Port of Auckland, was a three-mastered schooner of 45 tons register, built at Kawhia in 1848 by Francis Owen Leathart, and her dimensions were: length 46ft., beam 15ft., depth 8ft. She was owned and commanded by her builder, Captain F. O. Leathart
      O. Leathart
  
  
  His occupation was Master Mariner.

  • Occupation Notes
    • Book – A History of Kawhia & its District
      By – Peg Cummins, 2004
      
      Chapter 10 – Fairchild & Leathart
      
      Another sea captain mentioned in Mandeno’s article is Captain Francis Owen Leathart. He come to Kawhia from Raglan and had laid claim to large areas of land in both places. However, because the purchases had been allegedly made before 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, his claims were disallowed. Thereafter:
      
      He settled at Kawhia and assisted George Charleton in his trading ventures. He apparently was often captain on Charleton’s own vessels “Lively” and “Matilda”. Another activity of Leathart was ship building. A ship building site was on the shores of Pouewe and it was here that he built his own boat “Harriet Leathart” of 45 tons.
      
      The following document was also among Corban’s papers. It seems to be a letter outlining more fully some aspects of the life of Captain F.O.Leathart and two of his brothers.
      
      Captain Francis Owen Leathart was a master mariner sailing out of Sydney in the late 1830’s. Between 1836 and 1839 he made a number of trips across the Tasman Sea, visiting various ports around New Zealand, trading in flax, whale oil and bone, potatoes etc. The ships of which he was captain include: “Dublin Packet”, “Success”, “Edward”, “Hannah” and “Magnet”. In the late 1830’s he was involved in a number of land purchases, I think principally as an agent for Sydney based merchants.
      
      In October 1839, “Magnet”, captained by Leathart arrived in Kawhia Harbour (incidentally it also brought the Laurie family as passengers to settle). In the book “Raglan County, Hills and Sea”, Kennell and Williams, it is reported that Captain Leathart purchased 20 000 acres for a farthing and acre extending 15 miles up the Awaroa River. John Whiteley, the Methodist missionary was away from Kawhia at the time, and the natives had no one to advise them, resulting in the land being sold for a fraction of its true value. “Magnet” sailed north to Whaingaroa Harbour and Leathart purchased two further blocks of land – 7680 acres between the Harbour and Karioi mountain, and 10240 acres around the area which is now known as Te Uku, Okete and Kauroa. These claims were noted by the Land Claims Commission but were not pushed forward.
      In 1841, Leathart is recorded as being resident in Kawhia, and in April 1841, in The Journal if Ensign Best, Best and Captain Symonds and recorded as staying for a week with Mr Leathart and his brother. (The brother is likely to have been Charles or Edwin, who arrived in Port Nicholson, Wellington in January 1841, from England aboard “Slains Castle”. They were travelling with Charles’ wife Claudia.)
      Best described Leathart as “the most respectable settler in the place…... Kawhia can boast of nearly a dozen white inhabitants the greater part of whom are lawless drunken set.” He goes on to recount the story of another Kawhia resident, John Cowell (Mauri name Kaora) who had been involved in the cannibalistic massacre of a Maori chief Tamaiharanui and his wife and daughter in 1830. Best also describes how Leathart and a policeman had caught a runaway convict, Smith, and in the process had nearly shot a native, with whom Smith had swapped clothes in an attempt to escape.
      
      Robert Alexander Leathart was born in Kawhia in 1842. I had thought he was the son of Francis Owen, but as Charles and/or Edwin Leathart were probably living in Kawhia also, Robert could have been the son of one of these two. There is no record of Robert’s birth in the official birth records of the time, but I have jotted down that he was born in Kawhia so I must have got this information from somewhere. He married Elizabeth in 1865 and in 1869 they were on the Rates Roff of Auckland, living in Onehunga.
      
      F.O.Leathart was a shipwright as well as a ship’s captain. He built at least two ships
      § “Uncle Sam” built Waiheke 1844 and wrecked at Hawkes Bay 1846
      § “John Bull” built Mercury Bay and wrecked Tasmania 1851
      § “Harriet Leathart” built Kawhia and wrecked Wanganui 1848
      
      Charles and Edwin Leathart were also shipwrights. The built the schooner, “Victory” in Kawhia in 1845.
      
      There are further references to a Captain Leathart commanding two ships, “Joseph Cripps” wrecked in 1851 and “Arabia” wrecked in 1852. I don’t know which Leathart it was; there is a suggestion F.O.Leathart was wrecked off Tasmania in 1851. There are no further references to him after his date, and no record of his death in New Zealand death registers.
      
      The ships Leathart built in Kawhia were constructed at his boatyard near the foreshore at Maketu. Kauri was floated across the harbour (from where it had been pit-sawn) for the straight parts and pohutukawa was used for the curved pieces. This would account for the lack of pohutukawa between Maketu and the Heads, whereas, before the pakeha came the whole foreshore was lined with them.