[2] He arrived in Nelson on the ship Fifeshire, where he farmed on fifty acres of land he had purchased at Wakapuaka, and called his property 'Thackwood'.
In August 1853, Francis Jollie was one of the three candidates in the inaugural election for the superintendency of Nelson Province.
[5] Later in 1853, Jollie moved to Peel Forest in Canterbury, where he would live for the rest of his life.
[1] He named the forest after Sir Robert Peel, the British Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who had died in 1850, the year that Canterbury was founded.
Stephens won the by-election on a show of hands at the nomination meeting, as Jollie's supporters did not request an election.