Sarah
F, #3657, b. about 1810, d. 11 February 1889
Biography
Sarah was born about 1810 in LON, ENG.
1,2 She and
William Tudway Cains were married before 1839 in Australia? She died on 11 February 1889, at age ~79, in Beresford St., Auckland, age 72 ? must have been older?
3 PPA Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 36, 12 February 1889, Page 4
Another of those old identities who link together the past and present of colonial history has just past away in the person of Mrs Sarah Kanes, of Beresford-street, relict of the late Mr William T. Kanes, of Bristol, England. She died last evening, just on the eve of her 72nd birthday, in Beresford-street, suddenly, of dropsy, and was, it is stated, the oldest lady resident in the colony, having resided in this province continuously for quite half a century. In 1839 she landed from Australia, where she had previously spent several years at Kororareka, Bay of Islands, near which historic spot, at Otuihu Pa, she resided ever since. During the early stage of colonial history, both before and after New Zealand became a British colony, the deceased lady witnessed many stirring and thrilling sights, and passed through many trying scenes, some of which would have compelled a woman of less "nerve" to abandon^ all thought of residence in the place. During varioustribal feuds between 1839 and 1844 and afterwards, in the course of Hone Heke's war in the North, Mrs Kanes and her family were often in great danger of their lives, and in fact their slaughter was most imminent on three different occasions, and they were only preserved by the mediation of friendly natives. During Heke's war, to prevent their house at Otuihu from being pillaged and burnt by the Maori warriors in arms, a party of friendly Ngapuhis erected a 6-feet palisade round it as a protection. Through all the scenes of peril incident to settlement in the early day 3, Mrs Kanes and her family passed safely, and she made very many friends amongst the Ngapuhi natives in the Worth, amongst whom she had lived close uponsoyears. Shewas the only white woman who remained at the Bay during the whole oi the early Maori troubles. About five years ago she removed to Auckland, mainly on account of her increasing age. She leaves three daughters, out of a family of sixteen, married respectively to Captain Norris, Mr R. T. Chatfield, merchant, of Samoa, and Captain Evanson, of the schooner Curlew, now trading on the coasb of New Guinea.
Citations
- [S627] Index to Anglican Baptisms, Burials & Marriages in the BOI
- [S1012] Diane WILSON, The Wilson Collection
- [S272] Newspapers Past, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast