I first became aware of the Marsdens of Isel from a mention in Fodor’s guide while we were planning our visit to New Zealand last year. It was clear that the family was prominent in the Nelson area but I was a little surprised that I had not heard from any descendants. A visit to Isel and the invaluable assistance of the archivist at the local museum brought to light the story of this successful local family and of its eventual extinction.
Thomas Marsden was an early settler in Nelson. He and his wife Mary arrived in Nelson on the "Prince of Wales" on 31 December 1842. Thomas was born in England and had as early as 1833 been established as a watchmaker in Hensingham, Cumberland before emigrating. His father James is believed to have come originally from Hathersage in Derbyshire although no record has yet been found of him in that place. Thomas was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Michael Street, Whitehaven on the 11th of March, 1810.
Thomas had already purchased a land allotment before leaving England but when he arrived in Nelson he also purchased part of Town Acre 438 which fronted what is now Selwyn Place, erected a house and resumed business as a watchmaker. In 1844 he took up his land allotment and selected land in Suburban South (now called Stoke) consisting of sections 45, 47 & 50. This totalled some 930 acres (376.3 hectares) and was one of the largest land holdings in the area. Thomas and Mary did not immediately take up residence there but over the next four years had a cottage built on the property into which they moved in 1848. Thomas’s land became known as Marsden Valley and Thomas named the cottage Isel Cottage, apparently after Isel Hall on the River Derwent near Cockermouth, Cumberland, though there is no evidence that the family had any connection with this property.
Their only son, James Wilfred, was born on 23 March 1844 followed by a daughter Frances Charters, on 6 February 1847. Following their move to Isel Cottage, a second daughter was born in 1855 and named Mary Eleanor.
Stoke’s first school was erected on Thomas’s land around 1848. There appears to be some question whether Thomas had agreed to the building, the view of which, from his window, he did not appreciate. He agreed, however, to the rebuilding of the school elsewhere on his estate around 1850 and it remained on the site until January 1864 when Thomas gifted the land to the Church of England. The stone from the old school building was incorporated in the building of the new church which was dedicated to St. Barnabas and opened in 1866.
Thomas ran Isel as a working farm but also did much to improve the property. He succeeded in having the main road which bisected his land diverted to run down its boundary and so consolidated his holdings into a single estate. He had also begun an extensive programme of tree planting as early as 1845 and continued this until 1865, planting several hundred trees during the two intervening decades and establishing a collection of national importance.
Thomas’s death was swift and unexpected. On 31 December 1876 he was riding in his carriage with his wife and grandson on the way into Nelson. As they reached the railway crossing at Jenkins Hill, a railway engine passed by and sounded its whistle. The carriage horse took fright and reared, overturning the carriage and throwing out the occupants who all appeared to be unhurt. Unable to continue with the carriage, Thomas picked up his grandson and he and Mary continued on foot. They had only walked about a quarter of a mile when Thomas felt faint, passed his grandson to a passing youth and collapsed and died. He was buried in front of St. Barnabas’s Church. On Thomas’s death, Isel passed to his only son James Wilfred, then aged 32.
James was educated locally between 1857 and 1864 at Nelson College where he learned the skills of agriculture and stock management. It is said that he walked to the college each day as his father could not afford to buy him a pony. This story seems difficult to believe given the extent of his father’s estate. Almost immediately upon the completion of his formal education he was entrusted with the day to day management of the Isel estate.
He was a talented farmer and continued to develop the estate. In 1880, shortly after his father’s death, he engaged local builders Robert Tibble and Robert (or Peter) Henry to remodel Isel Cottage and erect a more impressive facade built of a distinctive mixture of brick and locally quarried stone. Tibble and Henry walked the six miles from Nelson to Isel each day and walked back again in the evening. James also reduced the area of the estate to a more manageable 162 hectares, leasing much of the farmland, and always with the proviso that the trees were preserved. He has been described as the nearest thing to a feudal lord that has existed in New Zealand. James was an enthusiastic sheep breeder and had stud flocks of several breeds. He was also a keen exhibitor and in 1896 was made President of the Nelson Agricultural and Pastoral Association.
James married in 1900 at the late age of 56. His wife was Mary Rosemary (or Rose) Lees, then matron of the Wairau Hospital in Blenheim. Shortly after his marriage he and his sister Frances inherited a substantial estate following the death of a relative, Joseph Charters Brown, in England. The precise nature of Mr. Brown’s relationship to them is not known. A part of this inheritance consisted of a valuable collection of paintings, chinaware and furniture and James had a large extension added to the south west corner of the house in 1905 to accommodate this collection.
In his later years, James lived the life of a country gentleman. He developed a profound knowledge of New Zealand trees and birds and travelled about the area in an English dogcart drawn by a bob-tailed horse. It was only on the death of his sister Frances in 1918, when he inherited her Arrol-Johnson motor car, that he embraced this new form of transport. It was said that he never looked comfortable in this vehicle, sitting up stiff and erect as he was driven along. He lived something of a reclusive life and jealously guarded his property rights. In 1921, when the first aeroplane to land in Nelson landed on his paddock, his gardener was promptly dispatched to demand that it leave immediately.
James’s sister, Mary Eleanor, had married James Dinely Marjoribanks in 1875. Their only child, Stewart Dinely Marjoribanks, was born in 1876. James Marjoribanks died towards the end of 1877 at the early age of 35. Mary Eleanor died in 1898, followed in 1904 by her only son who had not married. James Marsden’s other sister, Frances Charters Marsden, never married and died in 1918. James Marsden himself died on 17 February 1926 and his widow in 1930. They had no children and their deaths brought the Marsden line in New Zealand to a close. All of the family are buried in front of St. Barnabas’s Church in Stoke in the ground which Thomas Marsden had purchased in 1845. Their graves are marked by prominent memorials.
Isel House together with 52 acres of land was left to the Nelson Diocese. For some time it was proposed that the house should become a residence for the Bishop of Nelson and the site of a theological college. A further 65 acres was bequeathed to the Cawthron Institute with stipulations in both bequests that his much loved trees should be preserved. Unfortunately the recession which followed a few years later forced both bodies to dispose of the property. The house and 12 acres were purchased by Archibald Nicholls who was responsible for some alterations in 1941. Troops were stationed on the estate during the war but beyond the loss of one of the larger trees, little permanent damage resulted. Nelson City Council, recognising the historic and horticultural importance of the estate, purchased the house and homestead area in 1959 for the sum of £12,000 (NZ) and it is now a public park. The house is open to the public.
References
Isel Park - A Woodland Garden, Bryan Douglas, Horticulture in NZ, Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer 1990
A Brief History of Isel House and the Marsden Family, Margaret C. Brown (undated typescript)
Isel, J. N. W. Newport, Nelson Historical Society Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1967
Britton’s Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers
The Nelson Narrative, H. F. Hutt
Isel Park, Nelson, Nelson Provincial Museum leaflet.
Modified 1 April 2002