Edward JOLLIE  1825 - 1894
Two brothers Jollie came to Canterbury after a short stay in other parts of the Colony, but early enough to rank amongst the original pioneers of this province. The Jollies came of a Huguenot family which fled to Scotland during the persecutions of France, and moved to Cumberland about the end of the 18th century.  The two who came to NZ were the eldest and fourth sons of Francis Jollie of Brampton near Carlisle.  Edward was born on 1 September 1825.  We do not know much of their early life but at age 17 Edward came to NZ in the ship "Brougham" as one of the survey cadets under the NZ Company.  Francis reached Nelson in the "Fifeshire" in January 1842 and Edward landed in March.  Young Edward saw a good deal of the varied and exciting service in different parts of NZ.  In 1846 he was sent down to Otago to assist in surveying the block on which it was proposed to settle the colony from Scotland.  The work was let in contract blocks, Jollie being engaged in partnership with Wylie and A.Wills on the block which included the Clutha, Kaihiku and Waiwera.   In that service he became acquainted with Captain Thomas who undertook the block between the Clutha and the Tokomairiro Rivers. Proceeding from Otago to Nelson, Jollie seems to have sent some time there farming with his brother on the understanding that as soon as the locality of the Canterbury settlement was decided upon, he should join Thomas in the survey.  While in Nelson Jollie made the first overland trip with sheep between Nelson and North Canterbury by way of what was afterwards called Jollie's Pass. The Canterbury scheme having been developed, Jollie came down to Lyttelton in August 1849 and entered upon the work of the survey under Captain Thomas.  His first task was the survey of the town of Lyttelton,
was satisfactorily accomplished, and in October he proceeded to do a similar duty for the projected town of Sumner.  By the end of the year,
owing to a vacancy in the staff, Jollie was brought to work on the survey of Christchurch.   While so engaged he lived in a grass hut at "The Bricks" belonging to the surveyor Scroggs, amongst his newest neighbours being Cass and the Deans Bros.  In planning Christchurch, Jollie laid out a few crescents, which Thomas disallowed.  He also proposed to make some of the streets two chain wide so that trees could be planted down the middle, but here again Thomas demurred until it was too late to alter the plans.   The naming of the streets in Lyttelton and
Christchurch was carried by a rather amusing device.  By the aid of the peerage, names of Bishoprics of the Church of England were read out and one by one, approved by Thomas and written upon the map.  Lyttelton having been first treated some of the most stylish names were used up there.  It was considered unwise to use the same names in Christchurch and hence we find quite a lot of the streets in the city being the names of Irish and rather obscure Colonial sees; Tuam, Cashel, Antigua, Barbadoes.   The work was completed by March 1850 and eleven months later Jollie was present at the Land Office on the site of Christchurch  when the settlers made their first selections of land. Edward Jollie decided to make his permanent home in the province, and he continued to practice his profession of surveyor for some years.  A great deal of the survey work in South Canterbury fell to him and Hewlings.  One block of 2 million acres between the Rangitata and the Waitangi, they surveyed on contract at 28s. per thousand acres; and in the following year (1859) Jollie was sent down to survey the Govt. town of Timaru. In 1860 Jollie was elected to represent Cheviot in Parliament and he held his seat until other business compelled him to resign in 1861.  In that year he married Caroline Armstrong daughter of the Rev. John Muggeridge Orsmond and  made his home in Canterbury.  In 1865 he was elected to represent Heathcote in the Provincial Council and he almost immediately became a member of Tancred's Executive in which he
served for twelve months.  At the elections in 1866 he was elected for Selwyn which constituency he continued to represent for the remainder of the Provincial period (until 1876). On the Council reassembling in 1866 he took Office as Leader of an Executive for a few weeks.  Again in
March 1868 he took office and continued until June the following year, when he was defeated and remained out of office for twelve hours.
Returning to the Govt. benches as Provincial Secretary he was in office until 1870.   Once more in 1874-75, he was the Executive, this time under the leadership of Montgomery. On the abolition of the Provinces Jollie returned his attentions to farming on his property at Southbridge.  Having now a considerable family, 2sons and 7 daughters, he went to England in 1879 for their education, and remained there for 5 years, when he returned he went to the North Island, taking up land at Waireka near Patea, where he lived for the remainder of his days.  He also had an interest in Napier land and estate business of Jollie, Fulton & Co.  He died on August 7th 1894. Jollie was one of the founders of the Christchurch Club in 1856.
Source : The Christchurch Press Saturday August 2nd 1930 (Our thanks to Beverly Evans)