Betty Hine Whitaker

Irihapeti Hineraria Potatau Te Wherowhero was one of two younger daughters of Potatau Te Wherowhero, Maori Chieftain of Waikato, who was elected first Maori King in 1858, by his 4th wife Ngawaero, the younger daughter of Pehi Tukorehu, Chieftain of Ngati Maniapoto. From the Journal of Ensign Best in 1842 there is evidence she had an early first marriage to He Kaka (David) a young Maori Chieftain from Wangaroa. She was described as one of two daughters of Te Wherowhero "the younger of whom an uncommonly pretty Girl of about 16 had run away from her husband a young Chief of Wangaroa." In about 1848 she married James Whitaker, carpenter, shipwright, trader, and a former Australian convict, of Whangaroa, Bay of Islands. According to the Whitaker Family Notebook she was either abducted by Whitaker and "taken north", or "given to him" by Te Wherowhero "for services rendered". WFN. She was born in 1826 or 1827 and was therefore about 17 or 18 when she had her first child with Whitaker in c1844/5. They had at least seven children. He died in 1866, aged 66. The Whitaker Family Notebook states that after Whitaker's death she was taken prisoner by Nga Puhi and helped form a settlement in the north island with other prisoners. Their names are given. She was buried on a rock or island in Whangaroa or elsewhere in the Bay of Islands, afterwards known as Peti Rock. Source: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Te_Wherowhero-2