William Adams came to New Zealand in 1850 and took up the Redwood run in Avondale Valley. In 1854 he acquired a more accessible run in the Wairau Valley on which he had, by 1857, began building Langley Dale homestead. Adams became a leader of the Marlborough separatist movement and in 1859 Thomas Gore Brown, the Governor of New Zealand, visited Langley Dale and there signed the document separating Marlborough from Nelson. Adams became Superintendent of the new province. Langley Dale has passed through the hands of several Adams descendants, some of whom have been prominent in local affairs, and is now owned by the fourth generation of the family. It has been considerably extended, notable in 1870 and 1905, reflecting the growing wealth of the family at those times. Also remarkable has been the lack of change since about 1905.