Phillip (Hans Homman Jensen FALK) (Te Tapihana) Tapsell was born in 1777 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 He and
Maria Ringa were married on 23 June 1823 in Matauwhi Bay, Bay of Islands, NZ, 1st NZ marriage performed by Rev Thomas KENDALL, witnessed by William DARBY. (possibly at Oihi?)
JL has witnesses as Captain BRIND of the Asp and Captain WILLSON of the Royal Sovereign.
2,13,19,20,21 He and
Karuhi were married on 21 April 1830 in Kerikeri, NZ, married by MARSDEN JL.
2,12,20,18 He and
Hinei Turama (Hineturama) Ngatiki were married in 1841 in Whakatane, BOP, ANWA2 has 1841 in Whakatane by Bishop POMPALLIER
another source has 1840 CC by Bishop POMPALLIER
JOHO had 1845
HEMP has 1845.
1,18 He died on 6 August 1873, at age ~96, in Maketu, NZ.
15 He was buried in 1873 in Wharekahu Cemetery, Maketu, BOP, NZ.
6 First arrived NZ 1809 as a mate on a whaling ship. CC
note was born Hans Hommanfelk
could be first marriage that was officiated by the church involving a Maori.
Maria disappeared immeadiately after the marriage and was never seen again! JL
went to Sydney from Matata sep 1836 to re stock stores after his trading post sacked and returned and settled in Whakatane..
signed petition to King William IV 1837 JL
Hans Homman Jensen Falk was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1777. After being involved in the war against England he posed as a Manxman and assumed the name Philip Tapsell. He was keen to go to the South Pacific and arrived in New Zealand in 1809 as a mate on a whaling ship. By the 1820s he was ships captain on trading boats between the Bay of Island and Sydney. His first marriage is said to have been New Zealand's first registered marriage, however it did not last the day as the bride absconded. After hearing that she had died he married again and with his new bride in tow set off for the Bay of Plenty arriving in Maketu around November 1830. At the invitation of Te Arawa and in agreement with Ngaiterangi he set up a trading post where he would accept dressed flax in exchange for muskets. As well as setting up outstations, Maori settled at Maketu and all worked feverishly to purchase as many guns as they could. Many of their enemies were already armed and they lived in fear of annihilation.
Not long after arrival Karuhi died and he took her body home to the Bay of Islands. Upon his return Tapsell was presented with his third wife, Hine-i-turama of Ngati Whakaue (Te Arawa) and Ngati Raukawa (Tainui) descendancy. They had eight children, of whom six lived to adulthood. Hine-i-turama often took her children to Maungatautari (near Cambridge) to visit their Tainui cousins and in adulthood Perepere (Philip) and Ewa (Eva) settled with them. Tragically Hine-i-turama and daughter Ewa, then married to Dr Hooper were both killed at the Battle of Orakau when troops stormed the sieged pa killing its occupants.
After the sacking of Maketu in March 1836 the Tapsell family escaped to Mokoia Island and then moved to Whakatane. Captain Tapsell lived with his daughter on Motut Little recorded his reminiscences. He died in August 1873 and is buried at Wharekahu Cemetery, Maketu
TASPSELL employed other Europeans: NICHOLSON at Ohiwa, WHITE at Matata, FARRAR at Tauranga, CLEMENTSON at Matamata. ES
Further details of his life in a book " A Trader in Cannibal Land" CHT
PPA NZ Herald 25th feb 1899
The Waimate Church is one of the earliest missions and churches, and is beautifully looked after. All the graves in the cemetery are carefully tended. It was. here that Captain Grant and Lieutenant Phillpott, and other officers who fell at Ohaeawai are buried. A handsome monument has been put up to their memory by the Government. I looked at the church register, the first page of which contains the entry of the marriager of the
second officer of the whaler Asp, Phillip Tapsell, to a Maori woman named Maria Dinga or Ringa, on June 23, 1823. There were ten witnesses, and Mr Kendall was the officiating minister. The register is bound in rough brown calf, and has no duplicate. A duplicate should be made in case of fire or other mishap.
PPA Northern Advocate, 28 June 1934, Page 2
THE MARRIAGES OF PHILLIP TAPSELL. (To the Editor.)
Sir, In your paper-of june 28, I found an article dealing with the life of Phillip Tapsell. 1 am writing to you as a grandson of the deceased. He had three sons and' three daughters. The three sons were called Retreat, Hans and Phillip. Phillip Tapsell, whose name Avas Hans Honiman Folk, was a Dane. Born in Copenhagen in 1777, he went to sea at the age of 11, serving lirst: in the Danish navy and later in. the British mercantile marine. In the Danish service he took part in the wars of the time. Ho was for a period in command of a privateer in the Baltic, and later had the misfortune to be coniined as a prisoner of Avar in Sweden. He took the name, of ?Topsail??of which Tapsell is a corruption?upon Joining the British merchant service, accounting for his accent by claiming to be a Manxman. As a man nearing middle life, he entered the Avhaling trade in. Australian and New Zealand waters, becoming ultimately a trader between Port Jackson and the Bay of Islands, exchanging muskets and pnAvder for flax and gum with the tribes of that district, He was thrice legally married to Maori wives. On June 23, 1823, when chief mate of I]k> whaler Asp, lie was married at Oihi, Day of Islands, by the b?ev. Thomas Eendall, to a young N?gnpnhi woman named .Maria Itiiiga. This was the lirst marriage liet ween Maori nnd Pakeha- blessed, by the Christian Clmi-ch. The bride, however, disappeared, shortly afterwards | from her home, and Tapsell, who continued his seafaring life, Avas informed, some years later, of her death.
Topsail's second marriage was, .?is Marsden records, celebrated at Tverikcri on April 21, 18. r !0, Tlie bride was .?I lligll-liom VOllng AVOID!l 11, sistOl' ()f the celebrated Xgapulii eliiei', Waikato. To Topsail's ,groat grioT, slio
died soon after her marriage at Makotu. The bereaved husband brought her body baek to her home, at the Bay of Islands, and gave it burial on a hilltop above Oihi. Topsoil?s third wife was the ehieftainess Hineiturama, of To Arawa, among whom he had been induced to settle by the promise of a grant of land, much opportunity for trade, and a bride from among the maidens of the. tribe. The marriage was regularised about the year 184:1 by the Homan Catholic Bishop PompaUier, The descendants of this union are the Wha-nan-a-Tnpihana of the present day. Mr Kiri Tapsell, of Maketn, Bay of Plenty, son of Rctiriti, or Retreat Tapsell, is now the head of the family. Hineiturama, renowned among Te Arawa as ninth in direct descent from Hinemoa, and a. composer of songs, died in Œ?tragic, fashion in the final assault of April, 18H4, by th,e British upon the Orakau pa on the Upper Waikato, where the Kingites made their last, stand for independence. Hineiturama. was visiting her daughter, the wife of Hr. R. Hooper, who lived at Orakau, when she was made prisoner by the Kingites and married to one of their number, Ropata. Ropata was killed during the siege, while Hineiturama was bayoneted in the final assault.
Tapsell himself became celebrated both ns n t.rnrler and ns n loader nmoi;fl To Arnwa, and the guns from ii.s vessel are still preserved and fired upon special occasions. Ho died at Maketn in 1873, the patriarch of the PakehaMaoris. His tombstone, presented by the New Zealand Government in recognition of his services to both the New Zealand and the British Governments, records that lie was originally a Danish naval officer who served Te Arawa and the Government well, and died, honoured both, by Maori and Pakeha. I am, etc.,
K. RETREAT TAPSELL Romuora Estate, Ohaeawai. Phillip (Hans Homman Jensen FALK) (Te Tapihana) Tapsell was a 1st Mate ship Asp. later Trader in 1823.
2,22,23 He was a 1st Mate Sisters in 1825.
24 He immigrated to settled Maketu, Bay of Plenty, in 1828 MB has arrival date as 1828
ESR has arrived BOI 1823.
2,24 He was a trader Maketu, BOP in 1830.
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