The New Zealand Company purchased the Otago block from Ngāi Tahu dignitaries on 31 July 1844 for £2,400 and gained legal title in 1847, opening the way for large-scale European settlement in Otago on Wakefield lines. The settlement was planned to be named New Edinburgh but instead the local name Otago (a variant of Ōtākou) was used. George Rennie and William Cargill, both from Scotland, along with the Free Church of Scotland were the initial backers of the settlement. The Free Church had split in 1843 in protest at landowners having power over the nomination of ministers.