Sarah Tuckwell

  Noted events in her life were:

• source. Win & Steve Sinden & http://www.easystreetretreat.com.au/australianroyalty where it is noted:
After their marriage, William and Sarah sailed on 27 July 1819 on the Brig 'General Gates' under Captain Rigg, bound for New Zealand. They arrived at Rangihoua, Bay of Islands on 12 August 1819. William had been employed by Reverend Samuel Marsden when in Sydney to be a carpenter on the building of a house for the Superintendent of the New Zealand Mission, Reverend John Butler. They lived with the Butlers at Rangihoua until the carpenter's store was finished at Kerikeri. Butler wrote, " We have been busy all loading our goods for Kedeekedee and in the evening Mrs [Hannah] Butler, self, Mr and Mrs [John and Charlotte] Kemp, Mr F Hall, three carpenters, their wives and families went on board the punt and set off for Kedeekedee". The tide turned obliging them to spend a night ashore feasting on tea and pork dining with some natives. At two o'clock in the morning they proceeded, being taken in tow by some natives in a large Maori canoe, arriving at Kerikeri at 6am in the morning of 21 December 1819. Thus William and Sarah began their New Zealand missionary service, sharing quarters in the carpenter's store with William and Elizabeth Bean, William and Margery Puckey and their families.
In 1822, it became necessary for William and Sarah to return to New South Wales to be present for the General Muster of the Colony. Sarah and the two children sailed on the Westmoreland on 25 November 1821, arriving in Sydney on 11 December 1821. As William remained in New Zealand, Sarah probably spent Christmas with her family in Sydney. 1822 would be the last she and her family would spend together. After the completion of Reverend Butler's house on 22 March 1822, William sailed to Sydney on the ship Vansittart, arriving on 29 April 1822. During Sarah's absence, he and William Bean had boarded with the butlers at 18/- per week. A charge Butler would have rendered on the Church Missionary Society!
The Fairburns stayed in Sydney until July 1823. William already had a house on 60 acres of land under lease from the Government in the Parish of Melville (near Blacktown - Eastern Creek). When this was finally given up is not known, but by the middle of 1823, William had been taken on again by the New Zealand Mission.
The family returned to New Zealand on the Brampton arriving at Paihia 3 Aug 1823 to begin their mission work in earnest. They lived in half a rush house - a curtain down the middle dividing their end from the other, which was occupied by Rev Henry Williams, his wife Marianne and family.
About this time, to be exact, on 22nd January 1836, Willam, who had been well respected by the natives living around the Firth and the Auckland Isthmus, became involved in a huge land purchase which was to be his undoing. The local Maori insisted they buy the 40,000 acres between the Tamaki and Wairoa Rivers to prevent attack by the Ngapuhi and Waikato tribes. Three tribes disputed the ownership of the land between Otahuhu and Papakura. Since no natives were living on it, William and his colleague, Henry Williams were persuaded by the natives that, if the missionaries bought the land, they could then come back and settle peacefully on it. Fairburn and Williams thought the idea had merit, and proceeded to draw up the documents for the purchase. But Henry Williams, fearing the wrath of his parent body \endash the Church Missionary Society, backed off the potential purchase, leaving William to complete the deal on his own. As an act of Christian peacemaking, William reluctantly bought the land with his life savings. The purchase, being virtually all the land from Tamaki River to the Wairoa River. It was known as 'the Fairburn Block. For 90 blankets, 24 adzes, 24 hoes, 14 spades, 80 Pounds 900lbs of tobacco, 24 combs, 12 plain irons \endash total value £400. (This is from the records \endash Auckland District Vii, private Land Purchases, Deed No.347, 23rd January 1836, and compiled by Mr. H. H. Turton. \endash (Extract) In 1840, following the Treaty of Waitangi, the Government took 36,000 acres which it used for the Fencible settlements of Otahuhu and Howick and sold most of the remaining land to settlers, as well as paying Maori and returning most of the Wairoa Valley to them.
During William's frequent absences from home, Sarah struggled to maintain her native school, but her health suffered even more than William's and she was never really well from this time. By 1838, they had had enough and proposed to move to the warmer seaside of the Firth of Thames at Maretai. This new mission prospered and was described by Governor William Hobson on a visit in 1840 as the 'beau ideal' of a mission.
Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands on January 29, 1840 with a small group of officials, including an Executive Council comprised of the Colonial Secretary Willoughby Shortland, Colonial Treasurer George Cooper and Attorney-General Francis Fisher. The Legislative Council comprised the above officials and three Justices of the Peace.Upon arrival Hobson almost immediately drafted the Treaty of Waitangi together his secretary James Freeeman and Busby. After obtaining signatures at the Bay of Islands, he travelled to Waitemata Harbour to obtain more signatures and survey a location for a new capital. (He also sent the Deputy Surveyor-General, William Cornwallis Symonds, to other areas to obtain more signatures.)
After signing the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, William was entrusted with a copy of that document which he carried amongst the chiefs of his area who were not present at the signing. And so his signature appears on the Treaty as a witness to the signatures or marks of the chiefs.
William's proposal to the Church Missionary Society was that he would give a third to the church for farms and schools for the natives; a third was to be held in trust for the sole use of the natives and the other third he wished to divide amongst his now adult and landless children, all of whom had worked for the Church Missionary Society for years with little or no pay. William was, in fact, claiming nothing for himself. However, the Church Missionary Society objected vigorously to his plan, and under threat of dismissal, William resigned from the Church Missionary Society at the end of 1841. Severe depression and drunkedness followed.
This was the beginning of a dark period in his life. His beloved Sarah continued to decline in health and she died on 3 September 1843 aged 45 years old. After the signing of the Treaty, the earlier land purchases came under the scrutiny of the Governor of the day. Governor George Edward Grey first examined William's proposal (after 1845) and decided to act decisively. He cut the original purchase to a mere 7500 acres. William did not complain, but he did seek compensation from the Government for the land they had confiscated. In a New South Waleser to his request, more land was confiscated, reducing his claim to 5000 acres. William continued to press for redress, but to no avail.

Sarah married William Thomas Fairburn on 12 Apr 1819 in St Johns C of E, Parramatta, Sydney, NSW Australia. (William Thomas Fairburn was born circa 1795 and died on 11 Jan 1859 in New Zealand.)