Background
Shortland was born at Courtlands near Lympstone in Devon, England, the third son of Thomas George Shortland and brother of Willoughby Shortland, and of Peter Frederick Shortland.
Shortland was born at Courtlands near Lympstone in Devon, England, the third son of Thomas George Shortland and brother of Willoughby Shortland, and of Peter Frederick Shortland.
He was educated at Exeter grammar school and at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1835 and Master of Arts He then studied medicine, and was admitted an extra-licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1839.
In 1839. In 1841 Shortland went out, apparently at his brother"s suggestion, to New Zealand, where on 28 June 1841 he was appointed private secretary to Governor William Hobson. On 3 August 1842 he was appointed protector of aborigines. On 10 August 1843 he landed at Akaroa on Banks" Peninsula, to act as interpreter to Colonel Godfrey"s court of inquiry into the land claims of the French company, the Nanto-Bordelaise Company of Jean Langlois, which was then trying to settle there.
After the court closed he took a census of the peninsula.
Shortland reported on various land claims on 18 March 1844. About 1851 he returned for a time to England, and stayed mainly at Plymouth.
In 1860 Shortland served in the Expedition of the Thousand of Garibaldi. He was again in England that year, and became Member of the Royal College of Physicians He then practised medicine for many years in New Zealand, and subsequently lived for some time at Parnell.
In October 1889 Shortland finally returned to England.
He died at Plymouth on 5 July 1893.