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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833)

New Zealand politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ4800225 ↗
Source-derived summary

Arthur Samuel Atkinson (20 October 1833 – 10 December 1902) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the Taranaki Region, New Zealand.

Biography

He represented the Omata electorate from the 1866 election to 1867, when he resigned.

He had not been elected for Omata in the 1865 by-election.

He was a brother of Premier Harry Atkinson, and part of the Richmond–Atkinson family. He married Jane Maria Richmond in 1854.

He later moved to Nelson, and became a lawyer. He studied Māori people, languages and natural sciences. He died at Fairfield, the house that he had built in 1872.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833)” as new Zealand politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1833, 1902, 1866, 1867—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Arthur, Atkinson and politician can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as new Zealand politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4800225. The first chronological checks are 1833, 1902, 1866 and 1867.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833) primary sources, Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833) archive and Arthur research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Arthur Atkinson (politician, born 1833)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.