Charles Flinders Hursthouse

Charles Flinders Hursthouse (7 January 1817 – 22 November 1876) was an English-born settler in New Zealand in the early 1840s. He wrote a number of books and pamphlets encouraging emigration to New Zealand, and gave lectures in England on the same subject on behalf of the New Zealand Company. In an 1869 pamphlet he advocated for the federation of the five eastern Australian colonies and New Zealand to form an Australasian republic.

Early life and family Born on 7 January 1817 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, and baptised on 7 December 1819 at Tydd St Mary, Lincolnshire, Hursthouse was the son of Charles and Mary (née Jecks) Hursthouse. Charles Hursthouse Snr was a third cousin of the explorer, Matthew Flinders, and an executor of his will, and Charles Jnr later adopted Flinders' surname as his middle name. Back in England he became a carpenter.

His nephews included Richmond Hursthouse, Charles Wilson Hursthouse and Percy Smith.

Association with New Zealand After reading an account by Henry William Petre of the New Zealand Company's settlements, published in 1841, Hursthouse and his older brother, John, decided to emigrate to New Zealand.

Hursthouse returned to England in late 1848 to encourage family members to emigrate, and he wrote An Account of the Settlement of New Plymouth, which was published in London in 1849. Members of Hursthouse's family, including his father and various siblings and cousins, also emigrated to New Zealand. Hursthouse continued to advise prospective emigrants, charging a fee of one guinea, In May 1869, the Taranaki Provincial Council passed a resolution thanking Hursthouse for his "deep interest ... in the welfare of New Zealand during the last twenty-five years".

In September 1870 Hursthouse arrived back to New Zealand, staying briefly in Wellington before returning to New Plymouth, where he remained until 1875. He died there on 22 November 1876,