[citation needed] As he grew older he came under the influence of his elder brother, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who was later to establish the New Zealand Company.

He returned to England when the baby was born and was promptly arrested and held in Lancaster Castle until his trial, and subsequently sentenced to three years in jail.

[citation needed] After his time in Portugal, Wakefield returned briefly to England and enlisted in the British Auxiliary Legion (BAL) fighting for the infant Queen Isabella II of Spain in the First Carlist War.

The expedition took on supplies of wood and water at Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound and met their first Māori, who were interested in trading.

[citation needed] After five weeks in the Marlborough Sounds in the South Island, the Tory sailed across Cook Strait to Te Whanganui-a-Tara ("The Big Harbour of Tara") and Port Nicholson.

The first British settlers’ ships arrived in Port Nicholson in January, encouraged by the New Zealand Company's advertisements promoting immigration.

[citation needed] When the missionary Henry Williams appeared in the district with copies of the Treaty of Waitangi for Māori to sign, he also claimed some of the land the New Zealand Company had purchased.

Wakefield granted him one acre (4,000 m²) of town land, but Williams was later to lose his role as a missionary for defrauding Māori.

[citation needed] Wakefield believed that Port Nicholson's central position made it the obvious choice to be New Zealand's capital and seat of government.

[citation needed] The secretive and rushed way that the New Zealand Company had begun settlement ahead of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi created problems for Wakefield.

Governor William Hobson resented the New Zealand Company, seeing the Settlers' Council as an attempt to establish an illegal republic.

[citation needed] In 2003, the Waitangi Tribunal investigated the New Zealand Company's 1839 Port Nicholson deed of purchase and declared it invalid.

[citation needed] Wakefield was also affected by the death of his brother Arthur in the Wairau Affray, and felt partly responsible.

[citation needed]The New Zealand Company's issues were made worse by Wakefield's personality; he demonstrated no leadership qualities and was unwilling to take initiative in dealing with problems, alienating many settlers.

[citation needed] In March 1847, Wakefield fought a duel with his doctor, Isaac Featherston, over an editorial in the Wellington Independent newspaper that questioned his honesty.

[14] On 15 September 1848, Wakefield collapsed at a bath house following two strokes earlier that year, and he died four days later in a room at the Wellington Hotel.