 Wakefield bought the land for £100 from the widow of whaling Captain John Blenkinsopp, who had claimed to have earlier bought it off Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha.That sale would lead to the 1843 Wairau Affray in which 22 English settlers and four Māori would be killed.Further purchases followed in Taranaki (60,000 acres in February 1840) and Wanganui (May 1840, the conclusion of negotiations begun the previous November); the company explained to the 1842 Land Claims Commission that while the earlier deeds covering the same land had been with the "overlords", these new contracts were with residents of the lands, to overcome any resistance they might have to yielding physical possession of the land.