Te Aitu-o-te-rangi Wikitoria Jury

Te Aitu-o-te-rangi Jury (c. 1820–1854) was a New Zealand tribal founding mother, landowner and farmer. Of Māori descent, she identified with the Ngati Kahungunu iwi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Aitu-o-te-rangi_Jury

Whakapapa of Te Aitu-o-te-rangi Jury and Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury Te Aitu-o-te-rangi, the daughter of Te Whatahoronui and his first wife, Aromea, was born about 1820. She belonged to Ngati Moe at Papawai, in Wairarapa, a hapu of Rangitane and of Ngati Kahungunu in Wairarapa. Her parents and her grandfather, Muretu, lived at Te Ureta, Waka-a-paua and Wharehanga, on the western side of the Ruamahanga River, near present day Martinborough.

Te Aitu's childhood was disturbed by warfare as northern tribes invaded Wairarapa in the 1820s; resistance was led by her uncle, Nuku-pewapewa, and her first cousin, Pehi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi. Her father, Te Whatahoronui, and many of his people were massacred by a group of Ngati Tama, Ngati Mutunga and Te Ati Awa on the Wharehanga peninsula about 1834. Te Aitu and a cousin, Wi Kingi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi, were captured and held (possibly on Kapiti Island). With the introduction of Christianity to Porirua and Kapiti in 1839, captives were released. Many returned home but Te Aitu, reputedly a very beautiful woman, had met John Milsome Jury, from Wapping, London, England, a whaler and coastal trader. The couple left the Kapiti area and went to Nukutaurua, on the Mahia peninsula, where Te Aitu's surviving relations had been living since 1834, under the protection of Te Wera Hauraki, a Nga Puhi leader. It is said that Te Aitu and John were married by the CMS missionary William Williams, at Rakaukaka, Poverty Bay, on 26 October 1840. Te Aitu was probably baptised at the same time, taking the name Huhana (Susan/Susanna), by which she was sometimes known. They settled near Manutuke; John is said to have worked for Williams as a carpenter, building the mission house and church.

The exodus to Nukutaurua, known as Te Heke Rangatira ki Nukutaurua, came to an end around 1840 as peace was made and the exiles began to return to Wairarapa. In March 1842 Pehi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi led some 400 people, including John, Te Aitu and their son, born the previous year, to live at Te Kopi-a-Uenuku, Palliser Bay. In 1845, after the first European sheep stations were established in Wairarapa, John and Te Aitu moved inland, up the Ruamahanga River, to land called Waka-a-paua, later the Waka-a-paua block. Te Aitu claimed Waka-a-paua as her home when she recovered the spade-shaped piece of greenstone, Kau-ora-rangi, which had been hidden there earlier. She and her husband built their first home in a clearing, Ngaki-a-totara, on an island called Te Ureta (Jury's Island). They cultivated the land, planting wheat and oats; they also had cows, goats, horses and 200 head of cattle.

In the 1840s and 1850s John Jury sometimes helped other farmers in the district with their shearing and fencing. While he was away at the Californian goldrush from 1850 to 1851, Te Aitu worked for her neighbours, Catherine and Charles Bidwill, helping with their young family and in the laundry.

Te Aitu and John Jury had four children. The first was Hoani Te Whatahoro, who recorded many tribal traditions, laments and songs. A daughter, Annie Eliza Te Haereaute, who married Joseph Oates, was born in 1846, and another son, Charles Joseph Te Rongotumamao, in 1850. A male child, born in 1854, did not survive.

Te Aitu died in the 1850s, probably in 1854. There are several different accounts of her death. The most likely one suggests that she caught measles during the epidemic which swept through the east coast districts of the North Island towards the end of April 1854. Charles Bidwill made her coffin and she was buried either at Ngapuke or Waitapu, old villages near Martinborough.

John Jury continued to farm Waka-a-paua by right of his wife's claim to her ancestral land, as he later made clear at a Native Land Court hearing: when he was milling timber on the land in the 1840s no one had challenged his right to do so. Te Aitu's cousin, Wi Kingi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi, supported the claim: the island and the land around it had belonged to Muretu, Te Aitu's grandfather, but according to Native Land Court records 'the old man' (possibly Pehi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi) had given it to Te Aitu, 'seeing that she had children'.

In 1868 a certificate of title for Jury's Island was issued to Te Aitu's children by the Native Land Court at Greytown. John Jury died on 6 August 1902 at his daughter's house at Taumata.

Te Aitu-o-te-rangi, the daughter of Te Whatahoronui and his first wife, Aromea, was born about 1820. She belonged to Ngati Moe at Papawai, in Wairarapa, a hapu of Rangitane and of Ngati Kahungunu in Wairarapa. Her parents and her grandfather, Muretu, lived at Te Ureta, Waka-a-paua and Wharehanga, on the western side of the Ruamahanga River, near present day Martinborough.

Te Aitu's childhood was disturbed by warfare as northern tribes invaded Wairarapa in the 1820s; resistance was led by her uncle, Nuku-pewapewa, and her first cousin, Pehi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi. Her father, Te Whatahoronui, and many of his people were massacred by a group of Ngati Tama, Ngati Mutunga and Te Ati Awa on the Wharehanga peninsula about 1834. Te Aitu and a cousin, Wi Kingi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi, were captured and held (possibly on Kapiti Island). With the introduction of Christianity to Porirua and Kapiti in 1839, captives were released. Many returned home but Te Aitu, reputedly a very beautiful woman, had met John Milsome Jury, from Wapping, London, England, a whaler and coastal trader. The couple left the Kapiti area and went to Nukutaurua, on the Mahia peninsula, where Te Aitu's surviving relations had been living since 1834, under the protection of Te Wera Hauraki, a Nga Puhi leader. It is said that Te Aitu and John were married by the CMS missionary William Williams, at Rakaukaka, Poverty Bay, on 26 October 1840. Te Aitu was probably baptised at the same time, taking the name Huhana (Susan/Susanna), by which she was sometimes known. They settled near Manutuke; John is said to have worked for Williams as a carpenter, building the mission house and church.

The exodus to Nukutaurua, known as Te Heke Rangatira ki Nukutaurua, came to an end around 1840 as peace was made and the exiles began to return to Wairarapa. In March 1842 Pehi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi led some 400 people, including John, Te Aitu and their son, born the previous year, to live at Te Kopi-a-Uenuku, Palliser Bay. In 1845, after the first European sheep stations were established in Wairarapa, John and Te Aitu moved inland, up the Ruamahanga River, to land called Waka-a-paua, later the Waka-a-paua block. Te Aitu claimed Waka-a-paua as her home when she recovered the spade-shaped piece of greenstone, Kau-ora-rangi, which had been hidden there earlier. She and her husband built their first home in a clearing, Ngaki-a-totara, on an island called Te Ureta (Jury's Island). They cultivated the land, planting wheat and oats; they also had cows, goats, horses and 200 head of cattle.

In the 1840s and 1850s John Jury sometimes helped other farmers in the district with their shearing and fencing. While he was away at the Californian goldrush from 1850 to 1851, Te Aitu worked for her neighbours, Catherine and Charles Bidwill, helping with their young family and in the laundry.

Te Aitu and John Jury had four children. The first was Hoani Te Whatahoro, who recorded many tribal traditions, laments and songs. A daughter, Annie Eliza Te Haereaute, who married Joseph Oates, was born in 1846, and another son, Charles Joseph Te Rongotumamao, in 1850. A male child, born in 1854, did not survive.

Te Aitu died in the 1850s, probably in 1854. There are several different accounts of her death. The most likely one suggests that she caught measles during the epidemic which swept through the east coast districts of the North Island towards the end of April 1854. Charles Bidwill made her coffin and she was buried either at Ngapuke or Waitapu, old villages near Martinborough.

John Jury continued to farm Waka-a-paua by right of his wife's claim to her ancestral land, as he later made clear at a Native Land Court hearing: when he was milling timber on the land in the 1840s no one had challenged his right to do so. Te Aitu's cousin, Wi Kingi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi, supported the claim: the island and the land around it had belonged to Muretu, Te Aitu's grandfather, but according to Native Land Court records 'the old man' (possibly Pehi Tu-te-pakihi-rangi) had given it to Te Aitu, 'seeing that she had children'.

In 1868 a certificate of title for Jury's Island was issued to Te Aitu's children by the Native Land Court at Greytown. John Jury died on 6 August 1902 at his daughter's house at Taumata.

Nā Ra Smith
September 16, 2016 ·

WHAKAPAPA FRIDAY

Kahungunu = Rongomaiwahine; Kahukuranui = Ruatapuwahine; Rakaihikuroa = Ruarauhanga; Hineteraraku = Rangitauira; Rangimatakoha = Ruamano; Rakaimoari = Te Aohaeretahi; Tuteremoana = Wharekohu; Moeteao = Whakaihirangi; Mahanga Puhua = Ruihi; Te Aoteki = Tumaiteuru; Hiatangata = Rangitumotomoto; Muretu = Puruaute; Whatahoronui = Aromea; Te Aituoterangi = John Milsome Jury; Te Hoani Whatahoro Jury = Hera Ihaka; Meri Kiriwera Jury = Ngahina Namana; Rangiuea Namana = Hera Huaki; Ida Namana = Rangikaiwhiria Reiri; Frances Reiri = Ernie Smith; Rawiri Smith

TODAY: Te Aitu = John Milsome Jury

Their love was to bring people from the opposite sides of the earth together in freeing a woman from slavery, escaping a pursuing waka of warriors, suvive the rest of musket war, be returned peacefully to her lands and then bring three children into a life of peace, until Te Aitu’s death would end too quickly this husband and wife.

What is not even mentioned here is that both husband and wife were lucky to suvive their respective childhoods. While the life of a boatman, even as a child, on the Thames to bring produce from around the world into Wapping was not threatening, sailing on the merchant ships around the world was definitely adventurous and dangerous. John Milsome Jury progressed to his final place of settlement in Wairarapa with a sense of daring.

The danger for Te Aitu-0-te-Rangi the daughter of the well respected Whatahoronui and the niece of the famed Nukupewapewa, came in the form of warfare. This conflict that was unleashed on a nation, would change the face of Aotearoa forever. For the young woman Te Aitu, the killing of her father and her own imprisonment were just two events that threatened her life.

Yet they made a life together in an era of settlement before nationhood. They followed their whanau north, but they went onto Manutuke where John was employed as a carpenter in building the church of William Williams. It was to be the church Te Aitu and John were married in. It was at this place that Te Aitu was to give birth to Whatahoro Jury.

It was a conspicuous start to married life because in this place her first cousin, Pehi Tutepakahirangi signed the Tiriti of Waitangi, brought to this place by Henry Williams, the brother of William Williams. It was Pehi and Nukupewapewa who secured the safe return of Wairarapa refugees to their homes.

While these times were eventful in New Zealand, there was excitement throughout the world and in one of the events, the gold rush, John Milsome Jury was a participant. It was while he was there, Te Aitu died. Her coffin was built by Bidwill. Te Aitu had befriended the Bidwills and this compassionate act of kindness underlied the esteem Te Aitu was held in.

For many of her descendants she is thought of as a princess. Before she died she influenced her son’s life profoundly. An example of this was when she travelled around Wairarapa Moana teaching him about all the different dimensions of the moana. These levels extended to the atua, the whenua, the tipuna all blended in whakapapa.

John Milsome Jury returned to Aotearoa and lived out his days in Wairarapa.