FIRST WHITE WOMAN

Waikato Independent, Volume XL, Issue 3669, 17 February 1940, Page 4

FIRST WHITE WOMAN

BORN IN NEW ZEALAND GRANDMOTHER OF CAMBRIDGE RESIDENT In the church-yard at Russell is the grave of Mrs Hannah King Lethbridge, the first white woman born in New Zealand. She was the grandmother of Mrs V. E.Rickit, of Cambridge, who recently returned from a visit to the North, where Centennial celebrations have been held. iMrs Lethbridge was born at Oihi,' Bay of Islands, in January, 1816* and died in April, 1907,-at the ageof 91 years. It was at Oihi that the Rev. Samuel Marsderi preached his first sermon in New: Zealand on Christmas Day, 1814. Mrs Lethbridge lived there until) her marriage and in 1855, when* Mrs Rickit’s mother was nine-months old the family went to Sydney to live. They returned later, and Mrs Lethbridge spent her last days back at Oihi, where she was born. Mrs Rickit’s mother lived to be the' same age as Mrs Lethbridge, 91 years. She died in 1935. The family is still associated with the North, two of Mrs Rickit’s brothers being prominent farmers at Waimate.