Joseph Brittan

Joseph Brittan
Portrait of Joseph Brittan
Provincial Secretary of the Canterbury Provincial Council
In office May 1855 – February 1857
Preceded by	John Hall
Succeeded by	Richard Packer
Canterbury Provincial Council
In office March 1855 – July 1857
Majority	elected unopposed
In office August 1861 – September 1862
Personal details
Born	12 January 1806 Bristol, England
Died	27 October 1867(1867-10-27) (aged 62) Christchurch
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Mary Brittan (née Chandler; d. 1849) Sophia Brittan (née Chandler; m. 1851, d. 1877)
Relations	Guise Brittan (brother) William Rolleston (son in law) Frank Rolleston (grandson) John Rolleston (grandson)
Children	Mary Rolleston
Residence	Linwood House
Occupation	Surgeon, newspaper editor, farmer, politician
Profession	Surgeon

Joseph Brittan (12 January 1806 – 27 October 1867) was a New Zealand surgeon, newspaper editor, and provincial councillor, was one of the dominant figures in early Christchurch. Born into a middle-class family in southern England, he followed his younger brother Guise Brittan to Christchurch, where he and his wife arrived in February 1852 with four children. Joseph Brittan soon got involved in the usual activities of early settlers and gained prominence in doing so. He had bought 100 acres on 10 July 1851 and took up 50 of this to the east of Christchurch that he converted to farmland. There, he built the family residence, and the suburb of Linwood was subsequently named after Brittan's farm and homestead of Linwood House.

The members of the Brittan family were devout Anglicans (although the Brittan family had been Methodists) and had a close association with the neighbouring Holy Trinity Avonside,^[1] where Guise Brittan was a lay reader. William Rolleston became Joseph Brittan's son-in-law in 1865, when he married his only surviving daughter Mary; Rolleston was elected Canterbury's third Superintendent just months after Brittan's death.

Brittan was a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council for just over three years. He served as Provincial Secretary from 1855 to 1857 and was expected to succeed James FitzGerald as the second Superintendent of the Canterbury Province, but was beaten by William Sefton Moorhouse in October 1857. He established the third newspaper in Canterbury, the Canterbury Standard, which existed for 12 years until shortly before Brittan's death. Brittan was a very eloquent speaker, but he had a biting and sarcastic character, and was disliked, and even feared, by some. Later in life, he suffered from gout and frequent headaches, and this together with financial trouble, often made him irritable and impatient. He died at his homestead in October 1867 after a long period of declining health.