HMS CAPTAIN CLENDON SURROGATE KING WILLIAM IV TITLE KORORAREKA LAND TITLE
Channel: John Wanoa
Date: 2017-01-04

TAKE NOTE 

The Pa of Pomare II was situated very near to the Okiato residence of James Reddy Clendon and Clendon had purchased the land from Chief Pomare II in 1830. Again, in 1837, Clendon purchased an additional 80 adjoining acres from the Chief. It seems obligatory that Hobson's 1837 negotiations with Chief Pomare II would have included the participation of British Resident James Busby, missionary Samuel Marsden and prominent local merchant, James Reddy Clendon as well. On the Treaty of Waitangi, James R. Clendon signed on behalf of Chief Pomaré, then signed his own name beside that of the chief, the text stating; Witness Pomaré signature James R Clendon.

James. R. Clendon was a British citizen and businessman in New Zealand who had accepted the official position of Consul of the United States. He reported, to Washington D.C., any significant political developments related to New Zealand. According to Ian Wards

A very strong clue placing Clendon at the scene when the final English draft of the Treaty of Waitangi was written by James Busby on the 4th of February 1840 is provided by the watermark found upon the draft sheet of paper used. That watermark is a W. Tucker 1833.

''At National Archives there has been an item-by-item search through all surviving letters received and filed in 1840 and 1841 sequences for the watermark on the Littlewood document. No exact match has been found. Three items only paper watermarked "W Tucker" - one with the date 1836 and two with the date 1837 - and these provide no obvious handwriting similarity to the Littlewood document. An inspection of the Old Land Claim files relating to Clendon has not produced any relevant evidence'.

As it turns out, many of the non-ledger writing paper sheets that U.S. Consul, James Reddy Clendon despatched to the U.S. Secretary of State, John Forsyth, from January 1840 until January 1841 were written on W. Tucker 1833 paper. Although quite faint on microfilm, some of the watermarks are still readily discernible These W. Tucker 1833 watermarked letters, amongst Clendon's despatches