page_title: Joseph Brittan
section_title: Family, death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Brittan / Life in New Zealand / Family, death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Grave of Joseph Brittan. Inscription: Joseph Brittan Of Linwood in this Parish One of the early Colonists Looking for a better country Passed into rest Oct 27 AD 1867 AET 62 Also of his eldest son Joseph Born in London 24th Sept. 1836 Died 2 Nov. 1924
context_page_description: Joseph Brittan, a surgeon, newspaper editor, and provincial councillor, was one of the dominant figures in early Christchurch, New Zealand. Born into a middle-class family in southern England, he followed his younger brother Guise Brittan to Christchurch, where he and his wife arrived in February 1852 with four children. Joseph Brittan soon got involved in the usual activities of early settlers and gained prominence in doing so. He had bought 100 acres on 10 July 1851 and took up 50 of this to the east of Christchurch that he converted to farmland. There, he built the family residence, and the suburb of Linwood was subsequently named after Brittan's farm and homestead of Linwood House.
  The members of the Brittan family were devout Anglicans and had a close association with the neighbouring Holy Trinity Avonside, where Guise Brittan was a lay reader. William Rolleston became Joseph Brittan's son-in-law in 1865, when he married his only surviving daughter Mary; Rolleston was elected Canterbury's third Superintendent just months after Brittan's death.
  Brittan was a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council for just over three years.
context_section_description: Brittan had six children, all with his first wife; two died in childhood in England. They are Joseph (1836-1924); Emma Sophia (1838-1839), Adelaide Mary (1841-1842), Arthur Stanley (1843-1862),  Elizabeth Mary (Mary; 1845-1940), and Francis (Frank) Henry (1847-1940) who married Florence Laura Templer in 1878.
  His three sons Joe, Arthur and Frank, all attended Christ's College.
  The eldest son, Joe, appears to have been of a simple mind and  was never tasked with important roles He later lived as a recluse, being regarded as a burden to the family, though he had had three years at King's School, Sherbonne and was top of the senior class in 1852. So he showed some academic brilliance at Christ's College and may have been autistic or had a nervous breakdown. He and 15 others petitioned Godley in 1852 asking for land for school cricket or football. He stayed for some years with the Fooks family in Timaru. 
  Mary was likely first educated privately with her nieces at the home of her aunt. In 1854, a private School for Young Ladies was opened on Oxford Terrace, which she attended until she was 16.  After the family moved to Linwood House in 1857, Mary continued at that school as a boarder.
  Tragedy struck on 1 January 1862, when Arthur Brittan drowned in the Avon River while learning to swim. He got entangled in watercress, which the Brittans themselves had introduced to the Avon, and it took a half-hour for his body to be recovered. Arthur had left school by then and was helping his father on the farm. Joseph Brittan was heartbroken and there are indications that he went through a period of depression. Soon after the drowning, he advertised for both a dairyman and a farmworker, and even put Linwood House up for sale, though no property transaction was recorded.
  William Rolleston, at the time Provincial Secretary, proposed to Mary Brittan in early 1865. He was 34 at the time, and she was 19. Both Joseph and Sophia Brittan were opposed to this marriage, which is surprising, given that Rolleston was intelligent, well educated, successful, and even of higher social standing. They thought he was too old for their daughter, and that she was too young to marry. Perhaps Sophia Brittan did not want to lose her daughter, who was in effect running the household and entertaining guests, as she was often too ill to look after these tasks herself. Despite parental objections, an engagement was announced, soon after which Rolleston was offered and accepted the role of Under Secretary for Native Affairs, requiring a move to Wellington. Hence, the wedding went ahead on 24 May 1865 at Avonside Trinity Church, after which the newly-weds moved to the capital.
  Sophia Brittan was often ill, and health was a dominant issue in her life. Joseph Brittan also had his problems, suffering from frequent headaches and gout, and together with financial trouble, he was often irritable and impatient. Joseph Brittan's health declined during 1867.  Distressing for the family were the financial affairs, with various debts that only Joseph knew about. Rolleston tried to give financial advice to both Sophia and Frank Brittan, but he was ignored. Joseph Brittan died on 27 October 1867 at Linwood House.  He was buried at Holy Trinity Avonside next to his son Arthur, and when Sophia Brittan died in August 1877 she was buried near her husband. Brittan's oldest son Joseph died in 1924, and an inscription for him was placed on his father's grave stone.
  Brittan's daughter's biographer (Rosamund Rolleston, his great-granddaughter) described him as "a man of ability and a polished speaker [his] biting, sarcastic manner made him both feared and disliked", and as "quarrelsome and uncompromising".  In his obituary, he was described "as a speaker [who] took very high rank, possessing a force and fluency of expression, a power of lucid statement, and a readiness in debate, which with one or two exceptions have never been equalled in the Council."  Brittan Street was named for him and first appeared in street directories in 1892. Linwood House, which fronted onto both Linwood Avenu
caption: Joseph Brittan's grave at Holy Trinity Avonside
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