Paul Frederick de Quincey

Paul Frederick de Quincey (26 November 1828 – 15 April 1894) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in Auckland, New Zealand. de Quincey served in India from 1846 to 1860, and during the Invasion of Waikato in 1863.

Early life De Quincey was born at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Westmoreland. He entered the army 2 May 1845 as ensign in the 70th (Surrey) Regiment, and served with distinction in India from 1846, including being present with the 80th (Staffordshire Volunteers) Regiment at the Battle of Sobraon in February 1846, during the first Anglo-Sikh War, for which he was awarded the campaign medal. He became a lieutenant on 31 July 1846, and captain on 9 January 1858. where he commanded the 1st Company Transport Corps, and then rejoined his regiment; but seeing no prospect of returning to India without sacrificing his position, sold out, and turned his attention to farming, with the unsatisfactory results usually experienced by military men.

De Quincey entered politics in 1865, becoming a member of the Auckland Provincial Council until 1869.

De Quincey became a Justice of the peace in 1880, and sat on the bench of the Howick Courthouse.

In 1978, the former De Quincey farm was subdivided, leading owner Hugh Green to donate de Quincey's farmhouse to the Howick Historical Village. The cottage is used to display the Māori history of East Auckland. His stepdaughter was Florence Henrietta Pilling, who married John FitzRoy Beresford Peacocke in 1875. Peacocke's father, Stephen Ponsonby Peacocke, had been a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council until his death in 1872.