 For the next five years Jerningham Wakefield lived a dissipated life in London.In September 1845 he attended a lecture at the Royal Adelaide Gallery in London by the tattooed Pākehā Māori, Barnet Burns, who had previously applied without success to join the New Zealand Company on the "Tory".He joined the Canterbury Association on 6 May 1848, but resigned again on 8 November 1849.