John Harper (described as a Yeoman) was born in South Raynham and married Mary daughter of John Bussey of . They lived at West Raynham until the death of his cousin Margaret Sizeland, the last of that branch of the Sizeland family, when he inherited and moved to the Sizeland property in South Raynham where he lived until he died in 1867.

Three of John and Mary's children migrated to New Zealand; John (1851), Robert Sizeland (1855) and James (1856).

Presumably James and Robert followed John after he gave favourable reports of life there.

The three families all settled in Kaiapoi just north of Christchurch, where they were all farmers.

Emigrant ships:

• Sir George Pollock, from London on 17th July 1851 to Lyttelton on 10th November 1851. John and Maria Harper.
• Royal Stuart, from Plymouth on 9th October 1854 to Lyttleton ca 5th January 1855. Robert Sizeland Harper.
• Joseph Fletcher, from London on July 5th 1856 to Lyttleton on October 24th 1856. James and Sarah Harper, Sarah Anne and John.

John Harper has documented these families in considerable detail, but I have only documented the family of John and Maria here first with a simplified ancestor chart for John and then with the details of the family of John and Maria.