Person

Revans, Samuel

1808-1888

Samuel Revans was a printer, newspaper owner, and business person born in England in 1807 or 1808. He trained as a printer in London, through which he met Henry S. Chapman. With Chapman, Revans came to Montreal in 1833 and founded British North America’s first daily newspaper, the Daily Advertiser, in which they published radical ideas and writing by the eventual leaders of the Lower Canada Rebellion. The paper closed in 1834 and both Revans and Chapman returned to England. In London, Revans became a merchant, partnering with the firm LaRocque Bernard of Montreal. In the economic fallout of the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1837, LaRocque Bernard closed and Revans became responsible for a significant amount of debt. Shortly after, he became involved with the New Zealand Company, taking on the role of secretary to the colonists’ council and publishing the first issue of the New Zealand Gazette in London. Revans immigrated to New Zealand in 1839 where he continued publishing the New Zealand Gazette until 1844. Afterwards, Revans had several financial ventures, including a dairy farm that he ran with William Mein Smith. He also became a politician following the creation of the Wellington Settles’ Constitutional Association in 1848. He continued working in colonial politics until his retirement in 1869. Revans never married and died in Greytown, New Zealand on 14 July 1888.