Dicky Barrett (trader)

[1] Barrett was born and raised in the slums of either Durham or Bermondsey, England[2] He spent six years as a sailor and arrived in Taranaki from Sydney as a mate on the trading vessel Adventure in March 1828.

Barrett picked up a rudimentary understanding of the Māori language, was given the name of Tiki Parete and married Rawinia, the daughter of a local chief.

[3] In 1832 Barrett and his former crewmates (recalled as Akerau, probably Akers, Tamiriri, probably Wright, Kopiri probably Phillips, and Oliver in 1873)[4] joined local Maori in the Otaka pā at Ngamotu (Moturoa) to aid their defence in the face of an attack by heavily armed Waikato Māori, firing on the invaders with three cannon, using nails, iron scraps and stones for ammunition.

[2] In September 1839 Barrett sailed from Queen Charlotte Sound to Port Nicholson aboard the Tory with representatives of the New Zealand Company to help negotiate the purchase of land there.

[7] In November 1839 Barrett arrived in Taranaki on the Tory to negotiate the purchase of land from his wife's iwi, remaining there while Wakefield continued north to Kaipara.

On 15 February 1840 he translated Deeds of Sale and obtained 72 signatures to formalise the purchase of a vast area of Taranaki, extending from Mokau to Cape Egmont and inland to the upper reaches of the Whanganui River.

J. Houston, writing in Maori Life in Old Taranaki (1965), observed: "Many of the true owners were absent, while others had not returned from slavery to the Waikatos [sic] in the north.

Barrett remained in New Plymouth as the settlement grew, establishing a commercially unsuccessful whaling station[2] and serving as an unofficial harbour master, helping immigrants ashore as ships arrived.