John Clark Lidiard

The Histories

The Histories of the Stevens—Croot Family Heritage

John Clark Lidiard, is consistently referred to as “Riverton’s first teacher.” This creates some confusion as a gentleman called Andrew Bromley was also attributed with this distinction. Perhaps the ambiguity arose because Bromley’s school was located on the south side of the river at “Jacob’s River” while Lidiard’s was across the river in the area that grew into the Riverton township.

Lidiard’s early life was unlikely teacher training. He was a Jack Tar who fought under Admiral Nelson at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801. He was aboard the vessel that disabled the USS Constitution off Boston during the War of 1812. He was a crewman of the ship HMS Bellerophon when she brought a famous – if involuntary – passenger, Napoleon Bonaparte, to Portsmouth.

After his eventful career in the Royal Navy, Lidiard shipped as a whaler for the South Seas. It was aboard an American whaling ship that he came to the Bay of Islands (or Bay of Plenty—conflicting information) in 1824. For some reason he and three shipmates jumped ship. They fell foul of the Maoris there and his three companions were killed. Lidiard was saved when the chief’s daughter threw her clock over him, rendering him tapu.

For nine years Lidiard lived with the Maoris as a Pakeha-Maori. When he left his adopted people (one account claims he escaped), he came south working as a whaler. In Akaroa he married a woman named Kearaki (also spelled as Kiaraki). They worked their way south and had one child, a daughter, Ann (also known as Makee). Lidiard and Kearaki were married in a second, European, ceremony in Bluff by Bishop Selwyn on 3 Feb 1844. Soon after Lidiard and his family moved in Jacobs River.

Capt Howell recognised Lidiard as ‘an educated man’ and hired him as a teacher for his children George and Sarah Ann and the other Anglo-NZ children now noticeable around the village. Lidiard taught until the 1850s when an educational history names him as “Riverton’s first teacher.”

Lidiard’s school must have opened after 1844 when he was in Bluff but not long after, for we know that one of his pupils was Capt Howell’s first son, George. George Howell was 7 years old in 1845 (a ripe old school age) and by 1852 he was on an Australian journey so it must have been between these dates that John Clark Lidiard, the 60 yr old ex-sailor, whaler and Pakeha-Maori, began his teaching career.

In later years George Howell reminisced about his school days and has left us with a fascinating – if tantalisingly slim – glimpse into the routine of Lidiard’s pioneer school.

As George Howell recalled,

“ We had none of your fine brick and concrete buildings and your asphalt paths, but our little schoolroom was clean and dry – and that is the most important thing. We had no slates or pencils or copybooks either. All we had was a good clean blackboard and a piece of chalk. The first lesson of the day was the Lord’s Prayer, repeated by Mr Lidiard, and that is a good sound way of beginning the day. I think myself we got a good grounding in the initials of life. Morally and spiritually he was a good teacher and a good leader. Frequently he would lecture us on our duties to one another and always he stressed the necessity for telling the truth. If the education we received was not so elaborate as the education given today, at least it was on the right lines. To my mind no other could give a pupil a better grounding than we received. Also Mr Lidiard set us a splendid example. He was always dignified. In fact he set great store upon personal dignity and he was thorough in all that he undertook. He was a fine man.”

Lidiard’s school was situated somewhere in present-day Bath Street, near where the old railway goods shed was located. It was ‘just a hut with a huge fireplace at one end’ equipped with forms and benches made by Capt Howell’s ship carpenter.

Edited extract from pages 20-23 of a document from the Wallace Museum in Riverton—the name of which is unknown. The pages were provided via fax to Shirley Morait from Maree Gentle dated 10/11/2001.

Editor’s Note (April 2007):

New information about the life of John Clark Lidiard and his significance as a pre-colonial figure in the early history of New Zealand has been compiled and can be found on the following website: www.myancestorsstory.com If you are interested in learning more about Lidiard, this site is a must.

John Clark Lidiard (1789—1876)

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