With his colleague and friend Charles George Tripp, he formed the plan to emigrate to Canterbury, New Zealand, to take up sheep farming.

When they divided their land into separate holdings, Acland kept the 100,000 acres (400 km2) that made up the Mount Peel station.

The homestead is still owned by the Acland family, who take care of the restoration of the church, as it was damaged in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake.

[1][2] Like his father, he was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, from where he graduated BA in 1846, promoted by seniority to MA in 1849.

That same year, he was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn[3] and began to practice as a barrister in London.

[4] Acland and Tripp gave up their profession and emigrated to New Zealand in 1854 in the Royal Stuart to become sheep farmers.

The architecture is unusual and it is assumed that Acland brought the plans with him on the return from a visit to England in 1861.

[8] In 2010, a recent restoration and structural upgrade won the Canterbury prize of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) in the category 'Heritage and Conservation'.

In the same ceremony as Tripp, the Bishop's second daughter, Mary Anna Harper, married Charles Blakiston.

John Dyke Acland returned to live in England and was a Justice of the Peace in Somerset.

Henry Dyke Acland was chairmen of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College (1918–1928)[15] and became the Danish consul to Christchurch in 1926.

[17] JBA Acland's sister Agnes married Arthur Mills, who later became MP in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

[21] Acland was active in the Anglican Church, a member of the synod for many years and licensed as a lay reader.

Emily Acland laid the foundation stone in December 1868 and the first service was held in the church on 30 May 1869 by his father in law.