Charles Whybrow Ligar

Charles Whybrow Ligar (1811–1881)[2][1] was an Ordnance Survey surveyor, Surveyor General of New Zealand and Surveyor General of Victoria (then a colony, now a state of Australia).[2]

Charles Whybrow Ligar
Charles Whybrow Ligar, 1860s
Artist: Émile Jevezy
Born(1811-07-24)24 July 1811
British Ceylon[1][2]
Died17 January 1881(1881-01-17) (aged 69)
San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA[1]
Burial placeWillow Springs Cemetery, Willow Park, Parker County, Texas, USA[1]
NationalityBritish
OccupationSurveyor
OfficeSenior Civil Assistant, Ordnance Survey of Ireland, –1840[3]: 154 
Surveyor General of New Zealand, 1842–56[4]
Lieutenant Colonel, Auckland Battalion of Militia, 1845[5]
Justice of the Peace for the Province of Auckland, 1856[6]
Justice of the Peace for the Colony of New Zealand, 1857[7]
Surveyor General of Victoria, 1858–69

Early life

Charles Ligar was born on 24 July 1811[1] in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, where his father was stationed. From the age of 13 years he was educated at the Royal Military College (1825–1828).[8]

Career

Reputedly commissioned in the Corps of Royal Engineers, Ligar is said to have resigned shortly afterwards to join Ordnance Survey.[2] He was employed as a civil assistant on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland until 1840.[9][3] In 1839 he married Grace Hanyngton, daughter of Thomas Hanyngton of Dungannon, County Tyrone, and grand niece of the Earl of Charlemont.[10]

In London, on 16 February 1841, the Queen was pleased to appoint Ligar to be Surveyor General of the Colony of New Zealand.[11] Together with the survey staff Lord John Russell had commissioned Captain Robert Kearsley Dawson, RE, to select,[12] Ligar and family departed Gravesend on 16 April and Plymouth on 14 May 1841, on the Prince Rupert, for New Zealand.[13][2]

New Zealand

After being shipwrecked at the Cape of Good Hope on 4 September, [13][9] the Ligars and survey staff finally arrived at Wellington, on board the Antilla, on 8 December.[14][2]

A meeting had been held as early as mid-July 1841 to establish the Auckland Mechanics' Institute.[15] On 5 September 1842 the Institute elected Ligar as vice-president. His former superior in Ireland, now Commanding Royal Engineer, New Zealand, Lieutenant George Augustus Bennett, RE, was elected president, [16] and Acting Governor Willoughby Shortland, RN, took on the role of patron on 22 September.[17]

Ligar was also appointed land titles commissioner in the late 1840s.[2] He purchased a vast quantity of land from the Maoris for the European settlers.

Following the Battle of Kororareka on 11 March 1845 and the passing of the Militia Bill in Auckland on 25 March, Ligar was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the Auckland Battalion of Militia,[18][19] second in command to the Governor, Robert FitzRoy, as Colonel. Construction of an ambitious fieldwork for two militia companies, called Fort Ligar, commenced on private land on the town's western high ground as part of Auckland's immediate defence. However, the arrival of 200 men of the 58th Regiment, and FitzRoy's proclamation of 26 April commencing military operations in the north, brought an end to it only weeks after work began. During the war Ligar was engaged in producing a military map of the field in the Bay of Islands.[20][9]

Ligar resigned as Surveyor General in 1856,[9] and went to Otago, unsuccessfully seeking to become the provincial surveyor.[2] He discovered gold in the Mataura River while searching for grazing land.[2]

Australia

Ligar was appointed Surveyor General of Victoria in 1858 (replacing Clement Hodgkinson), promising to reduce survey costs and open the land for settlers. Ligar initially proposed to replace all government surveyors with contractors, a move that was not popular. At this time though, one great saving was achieved through the development and implementation of photolithographic duplication of plans, a process developed "in-house" by John Walter Osborne.[21] By 1869, leading politicians were demanding his removal and Ligar resigned in September.[2] His replacement as Surveyor General was Alexander John Skene. In 1869 Ligar married Marie, daughter of the late Captain Williams, of Auckland, New Zealand.[10][9]

Late life

Ligar retired initially to Europe, lived for some time in Germany, Morocco, Algeria and Spain, then took up ranching in Texas, USA. He died there in February 1881 and was buried at Willow Springs, Parker County, Texas.[2][1]

References
  1. "Charles Whybrow Ligar". Find a Grave. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  2. Powell, J. M. (1974). "Ligar, Charles Whybrow (1811–1881)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  3. Andrews, John Harwood (1975). A Paper Landscape: The Ordnance Survey in the Nineteenth Century. Clarendon Press.
  4. "New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette". Vol. 1, no. 38. 29 December 1841. p. 2.
  5. "Appointments in the Auckland Battalion of Militia". New Zealand Government Gazette. Vol. 5, no. 7. Auckland. 12 April 1845.
  6. "Government Gazette". The New-Zealander. Vol. 12, no. 1116. 27 December 1856. p. 4.
  7. "Government Gazette". The New-Zealander. Vol. 13, no. 1156. 16 May 1857. p. 3.
  8. "The Sandhurst Collection".
  9. Mennell, Philip (1892). "Ligar, Charles Whybrow" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  10. "The New Zealand Herald and Daily Southern Cross". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 18, no. 6020. 4 March 1881. p. 5.
  11. "Downing-Street, February 16, 1841". The London Gazette. No. 19954. 19 February 1841. p. 431.
  12. "New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator". Vol. 2, no. 72. 28 August 1841. p. 2.
  13. "New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator". Vol. 2, no. 97. 11 December 1841. p. 2.
  14. "Arrived". New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator. Vol. 2, no. 97. 11 December 1841. p. 2.
  15. "Domestic Intelligence. Mechanics' Institute". New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette. Vol. 1, no. 2. 17 July 1841. p. 3.
  16. Auckland Mechanics' Institute (1832–1880), Minute Books – via Auckland Libraries, Special Collections
  17. "Auckland Times". Vol. 1, no. 7. 26 September 1842. p. 2.
  18. "Appointments in the Auckland Battalion of Militia". New Zealand Government Gazette. Vol. 5, no. 7. Auckland. 12 April 1845.
  19. "Government Gazette Notices: Appointments in the Auckland Battalion of Militia". Daily Southern Cross. Vol. 3, no. 105. 19 April 1845. p. 4.
  20. Ligar, Charles Whybrow. Sketch of the routes between the Bay of Islands and Hokianga, shewing the Native paths, and the position of the hostile Natives on the 8th May and 1st July, 1845 (Map) – via Alexander Turnbull Library MapColl-832.11gmbh/1845/Acc.413.
  21. "An Invention that Revolutionised Printing". The Ballarat Star. No. 14562. Victoria, Australia. 31 December 1902. p. 3. Retrieved 25 June 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
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