James Macandrew

James Macandrew is a controversial figure in early Otago history, admired by many and deprecated by others. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1819 and worked there for a time before moving to London as a young man. He was one of many young Scotsmen ‘on the make’ in the imperial capital but retained his links with Scotland through membership of the Free Church. In 1848 he married Eliza Reynolds, daughter of a merchant family in London. He soon persuaded members of her extended family to join him in emigrating to the new Scottish settlement in Otago. In partnership with his brother-in-law he chartered a schooner, the Titan, filled it with family members and trade goods and set sail for New Zealand.

The Macandrew party arrived in Dunedin in January 1851. James immediately set himself up as a merchant, competing fiercely with John Jones. He helped found the Otago Witness and later the Colonist newspapers, and was a relentless booster of Otago’s prospects. With his partner and brother-in-law William Reynolds, he also pioneered trade routes to Australia and Britain. Above all, with his overweening confidence and enthusiasm he helped revitalise Otago’s economy. His coastal steamers boosted trade while he also won contracts to bring immigrants to Otago from Australia and Britain.

Macandrew also had a rollercoaster political career. He succeeded Cargill as Provincial Superintendent in 1860 but fell from grace spectacularly on the eve of the gold rush, bankrupted and jailed for fraud. He famously avoided incarceration in the public jail by declaring his own home a debtor’s prison. The respite was only temporary; he served out the rest of his sentence in a building attached to the real jail. Despite this scandal Macandrew never lost the support of many Otago voters. Within five years he was back in power and served as Superintendent until the abolition of the provinces in 1876. He also represented Otago in parliament and remained a political power in the province for the rest of his life.

James and Eliza Macandrew had nine children. They enjoyed a happy family life at their home ‘Carisbrook’ in The Glen until James’s bankruptcy. They subsequently lived at Colinswood in Macandrew Bay. Eliza died after an illness in 1875. James was badly injured in a carriage accident outside his home in 1887 and died soon after. He was widely mourned; for all his faults he had always had Otago’s interests at heart. Described by historian Erik Olssen as ‘Otago’s tribal chieftain’, his bust occupies pride of place outside the Museum.