Agnes Busby

Agnes Busby (13 October 1889) was an early European settler in Australia and New Zealand married to James Busby, the first British Resident of New Zealand.

Early life Agnes Busby (née Dow) was born to John and Jessie (née Campbell) Dow in Scotland in 1800 and emigrated to the Hunter River area of New South Wales in 1830 with her parents, her brother John, and her sister Susannah. At a party at Potts Point, Sydney, she met James Busby, and in November 1832 they married at Segenhoe in the Hunter Region.

Life in New Zealand In 1833, James Busby was appointed the British Resident of New Zealand, and he and Agnes moved to Waitangi to take up the position. He arrived in May and she in July 1833, already some months pregnant. They arrived to a poor situation: the house was "ruinous"; there were problems with hiring domestic staff; supplies of household goods were limited and deliveries infrequent, and Waitangi itself was an isolated outpost. In fact, the house was in such a poor state that the Busbys moved out to stay with the missionary Henry Williams for several months while workers repaired it, returning in January 1834. In letters to his family at this time, Busby described his wife's life as "slavish": "I often think she is a little lonely here, although she never complains". thumb

As the wife of the British Resident, Agnes Busby's role was to entertain and provide hospitality for visiting dignitaries, ship's officers and local Māori chiefs, and to help James write his despatches to the Colonial Office. The couple were also expected to be the leaders of what colonial society existed in the area at the time (about six families). To provide a level of hospitality befitting the representative of the British government despite the primitive circumstances was a constant challenge requiring much hard work; in a letter to her friend Charlotte Brown at the Tauranga Mission, Busby commented that "our domestic comfort depends so much on our own exertion".

Busby gave birth to four children while at Waitiangi: John (1834), Sarah (1835), James (1838), and George (1839).

James Busby died in 1871, during a trip to England for an eye operation.