The Canterbury Association was formed in 1848 in England by members of parliament, peers, and Anglican church leaders, to establish a colony in New Zealand. The settlement was to be called Canterbury, with its capital to be known as Christchurch.
Organised emigration started in 1850 and the colony was established in the South Island, with the First Four Ships bringing out settlers steeped in the region’s history.
The Association was not a financial success for the founding members and the organisation was wound up in 1855.
The Association, founded in London on 27 March 1848, was incorporated by Royal Charter on 13 November 1849. The prime movers were Edward Gibbon Wakefield and John Robert Godley.
Wakefield approached Godley to help him establish a colony sponsored by the Church of England. John Sumner (the Archbishop of Canterbury) served as the President of the Association’s Committee of Management, and the Committee itself included several other bishops and clergy, as well as members of the peerage and Members of Parliament.
At its first meeting the Association decided upon names. The settlement was to be called “Canterbury” (presumably after the Archbishop of Canterbury), the seat of the settlement “Christchurch” (after the Oxford college Christ Church, at which Godley had studied).
Plaque at 22 Whitehall, London, commemorating the first meeting of the Canterbury Association