# Thomas Hocken > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Thomas_Hocken > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Thomas_Hocken.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hocken > Source revision: 1344708185 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) New Zealand New Zealand collector, bibliographer and researcher Thomas Morland Hocken **Thomas Morland Hocken** (14 January 1836 – 17 May 1910) was a [New Zealand](/source/New_Zealand) collector, bibliographer and researcher. ## Early life He was born in [Rutlandshire](/source/Rutland) on 14 January 1836, the son of [Wesleyan](/source/Methodism) minister Joshua Hocken, and educated at [Woodhouse Grove School](/source/Woodhouse_Grove_School) and a school in [Newcastle](/source/Newcastle_upon_Tyne). He studied medicine at [Durham University](/source/Durham_University) and [Trinity College Dublin](/source/Trinity_College_Dublin), and in 1859 became a [member of the Royal College of Surgeons](/source/Membership_of_the_Royal_College_of_Surgeons).[1] ## Career The following year, he decided to leave England's cold climes for the sake of his health, and became a [ship's surgeon](/source/Ship's_surgeon). In 1862, he arrived in [Dunedin](/source/Dunedin), New Zealand, where he set up practice, also becoming the city's [coroner](/source/Coroner), a post which he held for over 20 years. During much of this time he was president of the [Otago](/source/Otago) branch of the [New Zealand Medical Association](/source/New_Zealand_Medical_Association), and lectured in surgery in the [Otago Medical School](/source/Otago_Medical_School). Hocken was married twice, to Julia Annia Daykne Simpson in 1867, and [Bessie Buckland](/source/Bessie_Hocken) in July 1883 at [Invercargill](/source/Invercargill)'s [St John's Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St_John%27s_Church,_Invercargill&action=edit&redlink=1).[2][3] Hocken's keen mind and instinct for collecting and preserving the past came to the fore when [gold was discovered](/source/Otago_gold_rush) near Dunedin in 1861. His house, "Atahapara", was located on [Moray Place](/source/Moray_Place%2C_Dunedin), close to [First Church](/source/First_Church%2C_Dunedin), and here he built up a huge collection of manuscripts and artefacts relating to [Otago's history](/source/History_of_Otago). Fearing the changes that the [goldrush](/source/Otago_gold_rush), with its rapid influx of population, would bring to the southern [South Island](/source/South_Island), he began to collect books, records, and ephemera from the early years of European settlement. His interests soon spread to [New Zealand history](/source/New_Zealand_history) in general. He became an expert in this field, presenting papers, writing essays, and assisting with the preparation of exhibits on such diverse topics as Pacific island costumes, early colonial settlement, and [extinct New Zealand birds](/source/Extinct_New_Zealand_birds). He was a member of such organisations as the [Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science](/source/Australian_and_New_Zealand_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Science), the [Royal Geographical Society](/source/Royal_Geographical_Society), the [Royal Historical Society](/source/Royal_Historical_Society), and the [Linnean Society](/source/Linnean_Society_of_London).[1] In 1898 Hocken became a commissioner of the Otago Settlement Jubilee Exhibition, marking 50 years of the province's settlement. In 1903 he travelled to Japan, Greece, Egypt, and Great Britain to conduct his own archaeological and historical research. Whilst in Britain, he collated many documents relating to the [New Zealand Company](/source/New_Zealand_Company) and New Zealand Mission, and managed to secure a large number of them and bring them back to New Zealand. He returned to New Zealand in 1906, and started work on his *Bibliography of the Literature Relating to New Zealand*. This work, published in 1909, is still regarded as the seminal work on this subject.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] Hocken offered his historical collection of books, pamphlets, newspapers, maps, paintings,[4] and manuscripts to the citizens of Dunedin, and this was duly inaugurated as the [Hocken Library](/source/Hocken_Collections) in 1910.[1] This was originally housed in a wing of the [Otago Museum](/source/Otago_Museum) and has been administered by the [University of Otago](/source/University_of_Otago) to the present. Hocken also presented the Otago Museum with a massive collection of [Māori](/source/M%C4%81ori_people) cultural artefacts, which form the basis of its extensive Pacific [ethnology](/source/Ethnology) collection. Hocken was, however, too ill to attend the opening of the Hocken Library and died less than two months later. At the time of his death, on 17 May 1910, he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago.[1] Hocken's personal archives of the [New Zealand Church Missionary Society](/source/New_Zealand_Church_Missionary_Society), held in the Hocken Collections, were added to the [UNESCO](/source/UNESCO) [Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao](/source/Memory_of_the_World_Aotearoa_New_Zealand_Ng%C4%81_Mahara_o_te_Ao) register in 2014.[5] ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Hocken_DNZB_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Hocken_DNZB_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Hocken_DNZB_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Hocken_DNZB_1-3) Strachan, Stuart. ["Hocken, Thomas Morland"](https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2h39). *[Dictionary of New Zealand Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_New_Zealand_Biography)*. [Ministry for Culture and Heritage](/source/Ministry_for_Culture_and_Heritage). Retrieved 15 December 2021. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Hocken, Elizabeth Mary, 1848-1933"](https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22413879). *Hocken, Elizabeth Mary, 1848-1933 | Items | National Library of New Zealand*. 1 January 1848. Retrieved 31 August 2019. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Marriages"](https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18830816.2.15). *[The New Zealand Herald](/source/The_New_Zealand_Herald)*. Vol. XX, no. 6783. 16 August 1883. p. 4. Retrieved 14 December 2021. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Hocken, Thomas. ["Dr Hocken's Original Pictures"](http://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/collections/show/19). *Otago University Research Heritage*. University of Otago. Retrieved 27 May 2015. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Dr Hocken's Church Missionary Society Records"](https://unescomow.nz/inscription/dr-hockens-church-missionary-society-records). UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. Retrieved 2 December 2024. ## External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Thomas Hocken](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Thomas_Hocken). - [University of Otago – Hocken Collections](http://library.otago.ac.nz/hocken/index.html) – official site. - [Bio](https://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/H/HockenThomasMorland/HockenThomasMorland/en) 1966 *[New Zealand Encyclopaedia](/source/New_Zealand_Encyclopaedia)* Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Netherlands Sweden Artists KulturNav People Trove Other IdRef Open Library Te Papa (New Zealand) Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Thomas Hocken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hocken) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hocken?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.