Gilbert Mair (23 May 1799 – 16 July 1857) was a sailor and a merchant trader who visited New Zealand for the first time when he was twenty, and lived there from 1824 till his death. He married Elizabeth Gilbert Puckey – who had the first piano brought to New Zealand in 1827. They had twelve children. Among them were "famous New Zealanders"[1] like Captain Gilbert Mair and Major William Gilbert Mair. Mair is a direct-line ancestor of Māori politician and activist Ken Mair.
In 1835 Gilbert Mair senior signed the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand as a witness (together with James Clendon) when a number of northern Māori rangatira (chiefs) established themselves as representing a confederation under the title of the "United Tribes of New Zealand".[2] Gilbert Mair senior was "present at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, and he and his family were acquainted with many of the noted men who visited the Bay of Islands".[3]