Francis Dart Fenton (b. 1820–5? d. 1898)

English-born New Zealand public administrator and musician. Solicitor in Huddersfield; emigrated to New Zealand for reasons of health, 1850. Taught music at a mission school in Auckland; became clerk in the Registry of Deeds in 1851. Held a succession of judicial and administrative positions in the public service; chief judge of the Native Land Court, 1865–82. Published Observations on the state of the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand (1859), the result of the first census of the Maori people.