church as the representative of the people of Canterbury, and an Act was passed by the General Assembly vesting the property in a Board of Trustees, on which it was provided that the family should be represented.
All accounts agree in grateful acknowledgment of the kindness and hospitality extended to early settlers by the brothers Deans at a time when such help was greatly needed.
Mr. William Deans was drowned at sea, near Wellington, on July 23, 1851. Mr. John Deans went Home in 1852, married, and returned with his wife, by the “Minerva,” arriving on February 2, 1853. He died on June 23 of the same year, leaving one son, the late Mr. John Deans, of Riccarton.
Mrs. John Deans (senr.) wrote some memoirs of early Riccarton, from which some of the above story has been taken.
