DESCRIPTION

Stoddart House was the home of Mark Stoddart, an early prominent Canterbury settler, and his family. Stoddart was the youngest son of Admiral Stoddart of Edinburgh. Born and educated in that city, Stoddart trained at a military academy before emigrating to Australia in 1837. There he farmed livestock in Victoria for about twelve years until drought and boredom encouraged him to sell up and start anew. Leaving his station in the Victorian Pyrenees Stoddart joined his friend, E.M. Templar, who had chartered the Australasia to take two thousand sheep to New Zealand. The two men arrived in Lyttelton in January 1851 while the First Four Ships were still at anchor; bringing with them not only sheep, but also the expertise necessary to farm them.

Nicknamed 'shagroons' by the Canterbury pilgrims, Australian squatters such as Stoddart and Templar arrived in Canterbury in increasing numbers during the 1850s.

On his arrival in New Zealand, Stoddart took up land on the north bank of the Rakaia River. Now known as the Rakaia Terrace Station, this run was sold to Sir John Hall in 1853, whereupon Stoddart became the managing partner in an enterprise which established Glenmark Station. Three years later he became sole owner of about five hundred acres in Banks Peninsula on a bay which he named Diamond Harbour. This property was managed by Stoddart's cousin, Mark Sprot, for some years, and in 1858 it produced the first crop of lucerne in Canterbury, if not New Zealand.

By 1861 Stoddart had taken up residence on the land, and during a stock-buying trip to Australia bought the cottage which was assembled in time for his wedding to Anna Barbara Schjott (1835-1911), the daughter of a Norwegian clergyman in February 1862.

Stoddart had a keen interest in native flora and fauna, and when he reluctantly agreed to serve on the Provincial Council (1863-5) he was particularly concerned with acclimatisation and the conservation of the natural environment. Together Stoddart and his wife had seven children, six of which survived infancy, and their second daughter Margaret (1865-1934) became one of New Zealand's leading painters. The family lived at Diamond Harbour until 1877, at which time the property was sold to Harvey Hawkins and the Stoddarts went to Scotland for several years. Returning in about 1880, Mark Stoddart bought a house in Christchurch and died there in 1885.

Perhaps the most well known aspect of Stoddart's Cottage is that it is the subject of one of Margaret Stoddart's best loved paintings. 'Old Cottage, Diamond Harbour' was painted in 1913 as a 'farewell' to the house in which the artist had been born.