NORTH SHORE HISTORY: WITH DAVID VERRAN
Philip Callan: Birkenhead and Northcote settler
By David Verran
Baptised a Catholic on 11 November From 1851, Philip and Jane were joined 1805, a son of Patrick Callan and Anne by another Philip Callan, born around 1833 (nee Duffie), Philip Callan grew up in and an epileptic. That Philip died in the County Waterford, Ireland. Around Whau asylum in 1875. 1838, he married Jane Mingy, a daughter Philip Callan senior is best remembered of Patrick and Catherine Mingy from as the landlord of the first Northcote hotel. County Meath. She had been baptised He held a ‘bush licence’ from 1858 to 1865 a Catholic on 7 August 1811. On 16 for the North Auckland Hotel, built from his May 1840, he and Jane arrived in own brickyard and a little distant from the Sydney, New South Wales, as bounty existing wharves at Onepoto Stream and Immigrants. The colonial government Hall’s Beach. The wharf at the Point dates bounty went to those who arranged the from the early 1860s. His hotel opened immigration. in 1859, with six rooms on the ground At that time, Philip was described as floor and five on the upper, including a a labourer who could read and write “a large ballroom. There was also a stable, little”, while Jane was described as a “farm outhouses, cowshed, stockyard, a well for servant”, unable to read or write. By the drinking water and a garden, close to his end of 1840 they had moved to Auckland, other brickyard and pugmill (a machine for in the new colony of New Zealand. Philip mixing and working clay) on Sulphur Beach. soon entered public life as in August 1841 In 1861, he sold three acres of his land he was a member of a committee setting opposite what is now Pupuke Road to up the Friendly Labourer and Burial Society Bishop Pompallier for ten shillings for a and later one of the trustees for fundraising Catholic cemetery on that site. the building of the Church of St Patrick and However,he was still heavily mortgaged. St Joseph in Auckland, which opened in From the mid-1860s, Auckland suffered January 1843. an economic downturn and he began to Map 4496-11 courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage In 1844 Philip cultivated two acres of sell off his assets. By December 1871 his Collection, Callan's Point (later Northcote) in 1871. wheat, barley and potatoes, most likely in remaining land was lost in a mortgagee Birkenhead as in September 1845 he took out mortgages to purchase sale. He had been the landlord of the Ferry Hotel on the Point from 56 acres in what is now the Huka Road area. In 1851 he also purchased 1870 to 1871 and in 1872 he briefly ran the Traveller’s Rest, but ended around 16 acres in the Lower Rawene Reserve leading down to what is up with just a cottage opposite the hotel, in his wife’s name. His brick now Chelsea Bay, near the sugar works. He established a brick works hotel was pulled down in 1882 in favour of the present wooden on that site and for a time the bay was known as Callan’s Bay. building. In 1852 Philip also took out mortgages to purchase around 27 In 1875 his cottage suffered a fire. Jane died 13 July 1881. She acres on part of what is now Northcote Point, from Bartley to King was intestate and her small estate was passed to Philip. Despite Streets. In 1853 and 1854 he purchased 76 acres in what is now the advertisements for a housekeeper and assistance from other local Recreation Drive area to the west of Birkenhead Avenue and 84 acres residents, he deteriorated further and was admitted to the Auckland in the Highbury area around Mokoia Road. He was a member of the Provincial Hospital on 16 August 1882. On 11 January 1883 he was local Hundred of Pupuke in 1856 and also purchased then around two transferred to the Old Man’s Refuge at the Whau asylum, suffering acres on what is now Northcote Point from King Street southwards. from dementia, and died there 17 January 1884. He was also contracted to build a wharf where Onewa Road meets My thanks to Brenda Knight for her diligent research on Philip the Onepoto Stream. Little wonder that the Point was for a time Callan. known as Callan’s Point, along with Stokes Point and then finally as Northcote Point from 1880. david.verran@xtra.co.nz
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