Stallworthy family papers.

Members of the Stallworthy family have been prominent in both national politics and also the local politics of Northland.

The Rev. George Stallworthy (1809-1859) was a Methodist missionary who left England in 1833 under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. From 1834 until 1841 he worked in the Marquesas Islands, and then in 1844 he moved to the Samoan Mission where he remained until his death on 7 November 1859. While living in the Pacific he married twice. His first wife was Charlotte, the daughter of the Rev. Charles Wilson, L.M.S. missionary at Tahiti. His second wife was Mary Ann, daughter of the Rev. D. Darling, missionary at Tahiti and later L.M.S. agent at Sydney.

One of the sons of the second marriage, John Stallworthy, settled in Auckland in 1872, and for a time was a school master at Newmarkt, He gave up teaching for a career in journalism, established the Aratapu gazette and acquired the Te Kopuro bell. He served on various local bodies, established a branch of the Knights of Labour, and was president of the Timber Workers' Union. From 1905 until 1911 he represented Kaipara in the House of Representatives on the Liberal ticket until his defeat by J.G. Coats.

His son, Arthur John Stallworthy, assisted his father in business for a number of years, and was editor-proprietor of the Northern advocate. He was later member of Parliament for Eden and Minister of Health in the Ward and Forbes ministries of 1928-1931. Two of his sons achieved some prominence in the medical profession; one as a New Zealand psychiatrist, the other as a gynaecologist in England.