Arrival of the "Royal Stuart" 1855
F.G. Tadman, Commander

This splendid ship left Plymouth on the evening of October 9th last, with 29 first, 37 second, and 36 steerage passengers, also with 650 tons of general cargo. Owning to the skill of the Captain the passage has been one of unprecedented speed, passing Otago on the 2nd inst, being 83 days only from land.  Diary

Eight days after leaving Plymouth the island of Madeira was sighted. The line was passed on the morning of the 4th of November, 25 days from Plymouth. The God of the Deep then paid his accustomed visit, and found all his "Sons" happy and prosperous. On the 1st December, in Lat. 46.30 south, a large iceberg, said to be 800 feet long and 112 feet high, was passed at a distance of two miles. The thermometer was 35.5°F.

We understand the voyage was passed most agreeably by the passengers, who enjoyed excellent health, the only melancholy casualty being the health of the Surgeon (Twining), who died on entering the harbour.  He suffered much all the passage from a broken rib (caused by a fall some years since) pressing on his lungs. We hear he was nearly sixty years of age. Messrs. Young and Co. acted very unwisely in committing the charge of so many valuable lives to a gentleman who, however great his professional skill, owning to his age and infirmities, would have been unable to attend to any serious illness if such had unfortunately broken out. This is more culpable when so many young and capable men can be easily obtained in England.

We are happy to welcome amongst the passengers our old colonists Messrs. Cholmondeley, Heywood. Paul, and White. Tasmania

The passengers were most agreeably surprised at the beauty of the country and the delighted climate of Canterbury. From a Correspondent. 

DIED - On Thursday last, January 4th, on board the ship Royal Stuart, aged 59 years, Mr. David F. Twining, surgeon of the above vessel. Source: Lyttelton Times  6 January 1855

January 4, Royal Stuart, Tadman, from London: 
Passengers in cuddy:
Acland		 Mr (diary)
Bennett		 Mr
Daw		 Mr
Fletcher	 Miss
Fletcher	 Mrs
Freeland	 Mr
Gould		 Mr
Harding		 Mr and Mrs
Heywood		 Mr
Hodgson		 Mr
Maude		 Mr (2)
Mitchell	 Miss
Pearson		 Miss
Teschmaker	 Mrs and 2 sons 	
Tripp		 Mr
White		 Mr
Wood		 Mr and Mrs

Passengers in the second cabin:
Brown		 A., Selina, Matilda and Eliza
Cholmondeley	 T. Mr 
Compton		 John, Andrew and Charles
Haymoin		 Caroline, Mary and Matilda
Hubbard		 Charles, Jane, Sarah, John C., and Frank, 
Laing		 Peter, Johanna, Margaret and John
Pigeon	 	 A. Mr
Rickman		 Mr. and Mrs and child
Rumbold		 H.F. John, and Ellen E. 
Smith		 M.A. Mr
Threkeld	 P. Mr
Walker Good	 Edward, Sarah, Edward R., and Sarah		

And 36 passengers the steerage. 
Another passenger - Henry Poingdestre

Frederick George Tadman was probably born 1828 at a farmhouse called Oakleigh, near the small Kent village of Higham. His family had lived in Kent since at least the mid 1600's and had been wealthy Yeoman farmers in Higham since the mid 1700's. Though a farming family they had connections to the sea, Frederick's father had two cousins who sailed with the British East India Company, one being lost with his ship in the China seas. Another of his father's cousin was a ship owner, probably in the East Coast coal trade between Kent and Yorkshire. Frederick probably never married and when he died and his branch of the family seem to have died out by the end of the 1800's as there are no Tadmans to be found in Higham today.

The date of Frederick's death on the Tadman family tomb in the churchyard of St Mary's, Higham, is given as August 1864 (this may not be very accurate) and he is not interred with the rest of the family, which is quite unusual. This suggests the possibility that his death is linked to the loss of the Royal Stuart, either he went down with the ship, or died of injuries as a result of the sinking. One of Frederick's cousins also made the journey to the antipodes, this time as an emigrant to Australia. Info courtesy of Fiona MacNaught Posted 17 April 2001.

John Barton Arundel Acland 1823-1904
Barrister, sheep farmer, and politician. The first of the Acland family in New Zealand. Sixth son of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th baronet of Killerton. Born in Killerton, studied law in London. Came to New Zealand with C. G. Tripp, on the Royal Stuart, arriving in Lyttelton in January 1855. Together they started their own sheep station at Mount Peel, and during the next 3-4 years increased their holding to about 250,000 acres, including Mount Peel, Mount Somers, Mount Possession and Orari Gorge. In 1862 they dissolved the partnership, and Acland took the Mount Peel property of 100,000 acres which he named Holnicote. In 1860 he married Emily Weddell Harper (eldest daughter of Bishop Harper). 

Shipwreck
The Royal Stuart, 723 tons, of wooden construction, built by Sutherlands, England, in 1851, official #21899, length 45.4m, beam 9.75m, draft 6.4m, was wrecked on the Capricorn Reef, Torres Strait, in May/June 1864, while on passage from Auckland to Madras. On the 12th June 1864 the Marie Laurie put into Port Louis, Mauritius, with the crew of the Royal Stuart, which had been wrecked in Torres Strait.

• High Endeavour by William Vance covers  histories of high country runholders including Acland, Maude, Teschemaker and Tripp. Gould is also mentioned.
  
• The Canterbury Museum Archives holds:
  "The Ocean Mail" a shipboard newspaper 11/11/1854
• Diary by Samuel Shrimpton - the accounts in chronological order are rather humorous (each has a dated entry)
      The same diary was published in Origins, journal of the Buck's Family Hist. Society, UK Jun 1991, and Oxfordshire Family Historian 5 July 1991. The log of the Royal Stuart to New Zealand was published in Origins magazine  15.2. June 1991.

South CanterburyGenWeb Project
This page may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion except for private study. 

Daily Southern Cross, 1 May 1857, Page 2
WELLINGTON. Cleared Outwards
March 27— Indian Queen, ship, 1060 tons, for Hobart Town.
March 28— Oliver Lang, ship, 1224 tons, Mundle, for Liverpool. Passengers — Mr. and Mrs. Seymour, Mrs. and Miss Travers, Captain C. Hunter, Mrs. Hope, Mr. and Mrs Hewitt, Mr. and Mrs. Hooper, Miss Dodson, Mrs Baker, Master Strong, Mr. O. H. Hope, Mrs. Dampier, Mr. Studholme, Mr. Kennaway, (2) Mrs. Teschemaker, Mr. Ackland, Mr. Pike, Mr. Haylock, G. B. Rogers, Coyle, Landers, (3) Master J. K. Warburton, Mr. and Mrs. Watson, Miss Hooper, Miss Watson (2) Master Watson, Mr. J. Wilkie, A. Williamson, J. G. Cox, T. Bateman, J. S. Stuart, Mr. and Mrs. Servantes, Capt. J. Gordon, Mrs. Deacon, Dr. Gray, Mr. H. L. Peake, W. H. Long, F. Duncan, E. Pearce, R. Dodd, Master C. Gold, Mrs. Bethune, Miss Bethune, Mrs. Roberts and 5 children, Rev. H. Govett and 4 children, Miss I. Hunter.

Looks like the Acland family returned by Contarf in 1859