William Nicholls

William Nicholls

Mr. William Nicholls, Proprietor of the Kaputone Wool Works and Fellmongery, Belfast, is a native of St. Austell, Cornwall, England. He came to New Zealand in the sailing ship “Warsprit, and landed at Auckland in 1863. Four years later he removed to Canterbury, where he completed his education and served an apprenticeship to the wool trade under the late Major Hornbrook, with whom he remained for ten years, after completing his term of apprenticeship. Mr. Nicholls started in business in the wool trade at Belfast in 1877, in conjunction with the late Mr. J. M. Watt, under the style of the New Zealand Provision and Produce Company. After Mr. Watt's death Mr. Nicholls took over the wool scouring branch of the business and still carries it on under the style of the Kaputone works. Mr. Nicholls resides on his farm “Springrove,” at Belfast, where he has a very fine residence and one hundred acres of first-rate agricultural land.
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

When Annie Quayle Townend died in 1914, William bought her famed residence, ‘Mona Vale’. He died there on 7 May 1920.


Photographs -
Top, by William Gee Parker, 100 Southampton Row, Russell Square, London.
Above by Standish and Preece, Christchurch.



The Nicholls family headstone in Woolston Cemetery, Christchurch.