Accidental Immigrants

When Thomas Powell and his family left Leeds, England, and sailed out to India in the early 1850s, they little realised that within a few years they would be living in New Zealand and facing different futures. By then a widower, Thomas would remarry and become a prominent businessman in Wanganui, his daughter would marry surveyor David Porter and raise a large family. Meanwhile son Wilmot went goldhunting, became a soldier, and then an auctioneer, businessman, newspaper correspondent, poet and borough councillor. The accidental immigrants - along with a growing family of young Powells born in their home town - played major roles in the formation of a New Zealand city.