This old settler was born in 1857 in the Falkland Islands. He worked for the "Falkland Islands Sheep-Farming Company" from the age of eleven years until he was thirty. But like all the pioneers of the south, his ambition was to work for himself, and to put to account in a wider sphere the experience gained in his years of labour. The opportunity was offered to him by the Governor of Santa Cruz, Señor Moyano, who at that time was visiting the Falklands, and advised him to set out for Patagonia, where certainly he would meet with every facility for carrying out his plans. Rudd took this advice and soon after started for Argentina in company with Messrs. Halliday and Mac Call in a coasting vessel, belonging to the corporation "The Falkland Islands", on which they had shipped building materials of iron, wood and some provisions. They reached Gallegos in 1886, and it is worth placing on record that the three persons mentioned and Messrs. Eberhardt, Bitsch and Kark were the first six settlers in the zone north and south of that river.

On arriving at his destination, Rudd and his companions began to unload their goods, but luck was not to favor them on the first day spend on Argentine territory. A violent tempest had suddenly sprung up, flooded the ship, and the waves dashing over the side, swept the deck of the little craft, and carried away the goods they had brought in it. It was urgent to find food and water. The latter was discovered that night before lying down; as for the former, they had only what nature could supply them with, that is, the guanacos and ostriches which abounded there. For the purpose of hunting them, they bought two dogs from the Indians, but the game was shy, for as the Indians, about five hundred of them, were hunting in the environs, guanacos and ostriches were rather scarce, or those to be had were so wild that it became almost impossible to catch them.

It must be mentioned that Messrs. Rudd and Halliday had brought their families with them, consisting of their respective wives and several children.

Shortly after setting up provisionally, the settlers went to the Straits of Magellan where they bought some sheep from Thomas Greenshields, who at that time began work at "Monte Leon" and at "Useful Hill".

For a year or so they were situated, as we have described, until Mr. John Rudd rented from the Government the land now occupied by his estancia "Cape Fairweather". His first stock was brought by his son William from the Rio Negro after a journey which lasted two years, and during which, owing to the drought, he lost more than two thirds of the sheep purchased. The remainder, and some rams imported from the Falklands, constituted the basis for the formation of his estancia, the comforts and progress of which at present do not make the old settler and his brave wife forget the hardships of the early years, when they had to live on guanaco meat, and be sheltered from the cold in rudimentary dwellings, and struggle day and night to save their sheep and lambs from the voracious pumas, which, at that time infested the lands of Patagonia.