Henry Baigent
Encyclopedia
Henry Baigent was a timber miller, and served as a Nelson
Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....

 city councillor and mayor. The Nelson firm of H Baigent and Sons Ltd was formed by him. His funeral was noted as one of the largest that had ever taken place in Nelson.

Family

Henry Baigent was the son of Edward
Edward Baigent
Edward Baigent was a 19th century Member of Parliament from Nelson, New Zealand. He was one of the most successful saw-millers of the region, and his company existed for well over 100 years.-Family:...

 and Mary Ann Baigent (née Hern). His parents had come out to Nelson from Windlesham
Windlesham
Windlesham is a village in the Surrey Heath district of Surrey in South East England. It is also the name of the parish that covers Bagshot and Lightwater, in addition to Windlesham...

, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1842 on the Clifford. His brother Joseph was born three days after his parents' arrival in the colony and Joseph was only the seventh child to be born in Nelson.

His father was a member of the Provincial Council
Nelson Province
The Nelson Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876.-History:The Marlborough Province split away from the Nelson Province on 1 November 1859 because the majority of the income of the Provincial Council came from land sales in the...

 throughout its existence, and afterwards in the House of Representatives
New Zealand House of Representatives
The New Zealand House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the legislature of New Zealand. The House and the Queen of New Zealand form the New Zealand Parliament....

.

Baigent was married twice, firstly to Margaret Inglis Wallace in 1866, who died in 1880. He then married Phoebe Atmore in 1885, an older sister of Harry Atmore
Harry Atmore
Harry Atmore was a New Zealand Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson in the South Island.Harry Atmore held the Nelson seat as an Independent for a total of thirty years from 1911 to 1914 and then from 1919 to his death in 1946...

, who would later represent the Nelson electorate
Nelson (New Zealand electorate)
Nelson is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. From 1853 to 1860, the electorate was called Town of Nelson. From 1860 to 1881, it was City of Nelson...

 in Parliament
Parliament of New Zealand
The Parliament of New Zealand consists of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives and, until 1951, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The House of Representatives is often referred to as "Parliament".The House of Representatives usually consists of 120 Members of...

 for several decades.

He had at least eight children; Albert Henry Baigent and Edward Sydney James Baigent by his first wife Margaret and the remaining six by his second wife Phoebe.

Baigent's eldest son Albert died suddenly in October 1905 off an illness. His son John was part of the 29th Reinforcements Canterbury Infantary Regiment, C Company. He embarked for Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 on 15 August 1917 the New Zealand Shipping Company
New Zealand Shipping Company
The New Zealand Shipping Company was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973.-New Zealand Shipping Company:...

 liner the "SS Ruahine" and then to France. He was killed in action on the Somme
Operation Michael
Operation Michael was a First World War German military operation that began the Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France...

 while part of the Canterbury Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion on 29 March 1918. His son Cyril from his second marriage died in 1923 as a result of war disabilities.

Origins of his timber business

His father brought a small gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

 and also a saw-milling plant
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 with him. In February 1843 he settled in Wakefield
Wakefield, New Zealand
The small New Zealand community of Wakefield is situated some 25 km south west of Nelson at the top of the South Island.First settled in about 1843, it was originally called Pitfure. However the name was soon changed to Wakefield...

 where he set up the gristmill, a small affair two feet in diameter driven by a water wheel. Then in 1845 he erected his sawmill.

Owing to a meagre supply of iron his father was compelled to use such hard woods as manuka
Leptospermum scoparium
Leptospermum scoparium is a shrub or small tree native to New Zealand and southeast Australia. Evidence suggests that L. scoparium originated in Australia before the onset of the Miocene aridity and dispersed relatively recently from Eastern Australia to New Zealand. It is likely that on arrival...

, akiaki
Akiaki
Akiaki is a low coral atoll in the eastern area of the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia. Akiaki's nearest neighbor is Vahitahi, which is located 41 km to the southeast....

, or black mairi for cog wheels. From this small a beginning did Baigent's timber merchants grow.

A flour mill was worked in conjunction with the timber mill, complete machinery and proper stones in the meantime having been obtained. The same water power was used as for the sawmill, the latter working by day, and the flour mill by night, and eventually the flour mill was handed over to the charge of a brother of Henry Baigent, who worked it for some years later.

In the 1860s his father installed a steam powered mill on another site. Baigent was entrusted with the task of opening a branch in Nelson in the 1870s. He established a manufacturing plant and in 1882 his father gave him the Nelson business. The principal timber milled was white, red, and black pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

, totara
Podocarpus totara
Podocarpus totara is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane and lower subalpine forest at elevations of up to 600 m.-Description:...

, rimu
Dacrydium cupressinum
Dacrydium cupressinum, commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps. The former name "red pine" has fallen out of common use....

, and birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

.

The factory produced sashes, doors, blinds, and building timber for the Nelson district and employed, on an average, between forty and fifty men.

Local politics

In 1893 he was elected by a substantial majority to a seat in the Council having defeated, among others, John Graham
John Graham (politician)
John Graham was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Nelson in the South Island.-Early life:Graham was born in Nelson in 1843, the eldest son of one of the earliest settlers of the region.-Member of Parliament:...

 who went on to represent Nelson in Parliament. Baigent remained a councillor until he became Mayor in 1901. He lost the 1904 election to Jesse Piper
Jesse Piper
Jesse Piper was a Nelson City Councillor and Mayor.- Early life:Piper was born in 1836 at Hastings, Sussex, England. He went to sea as a youth. On the outbreak of the Crimean War joined the storeship HMS Apollo and sailed to Malta...

 but regained it in April 1905. The voting was Baigent 728 and Piper 563. He did not stand in 1906 and Jesse Piper succeeded him.

Community organisations

Mr Baigent represented Golden Bay
Golden Bay
Golden Bay lies at the edge of the junction between the Tasman Sea and Cook Strait. It stretches for 45 kilometres from the long sand spit of Farewell Spit in the north to Separation Point in Abel Tasman National Park at its southern extremity...

 on the Charitable Aid Board. He has had an extended connection with the Masonic and Oddfellows Societies. He was President of the Nelson Cricket Association and the Wakatu Hockey Club; and Vice-President of the Waimea Agricultural and Pastoral Association as well as a number of other clubs and societies.

Death

Baigent died on Saturday, 31 August 1929, aged 84 years. His funeral was noted as one of the largest that had ever taken place in Nelson. Among the pall bearers was Harry Atmore
Harry Atmore
Harry Atmore was a New Zealand Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson in the South Island.Harry Atmore held the Nelson seat as an Independent for a total of thirty years from 1911 to 1914 and then from 1919 to his death in 1946...

, a noted local politician and his brother in law.
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