[1][2] Hargreaves was 17 when he left England and with him were his future wife (Ellen Redish, aged 14) and her uncle, William Hickson.
[1] Hargreaves married Redish on 29 April 1851 at St Peter's Church in Te Aro, Wellington.
[3] In 1855, Hargreaves moved to Lyttelton and went into a business partnership with Henry Le Cren; they purchased a store facing the Market Place (since renamed Victoria Square) and Market Place became the initial commercial heart of Christchurch.
[4] Hargreaves first stood for election in August 1861, when he contested a seat on the Canterbury Provincial Council for the Town of Lyttelton electorate.
[11] When Hargreaves was elected to parliament for the Lyttelton electorate and had to then leave for Wellington in June 1866, he resigned from the municipal council.
[12] Hargreaves contested the 1866 general election against the former premier, Henry Sewell, in the Town of Lyttelton electorate.