Charlotte Kemp (missionary)

Charlotte Kemp (née Butcher, 27 July 1790 – 22 June 1860) was a missionary for the Church of England, co-founding the second Church Mission Station in New Zealand in 1819.[1]

Charlotte Kemp

She was born Charlotte Butcher in Carleton Forehoe, Norfolk, England in 1790. She married James Kemp in 1818 and they sailed to Kerikeri, New Zealand, the following year. She was one of the first European women to arrive in the Bay of Islands. The first six years at the missionary coincided with the Musket Wars and civil unrest at the mission station between Thomas Kendall and John Gare Butler. Despite this strain on the missionary community the following years saw the establishment of the first schools. Charlotte Kemp taught in the girls and infants school, also teaching girls in domestic skills at her own home.

Sign at the gate of their house in Kerikeri

While at the station she had eight children. In 1835 the death of one of her children at seven months old coincided with a proposed move for the family to establish a new mission station in Tauranga led to her having a mental breakdown. This led to the family remaining at the Kerikeri mission station, becoming the only missionaries to remain there after 1840. Her health kept the family at Kerikeri until her death in 1860.[2]

Remaining in Kerikeri meant the Kemp family was uniquely situated during the New Zealand Wars, being among few Europeans who stayed in the Bay of Islands during the land wars, in 1845 they assisted in tending the wounded.[1] Kemp House in Kerikeri, better known as Mission House, is one of New Zealand's oldest surviving buildings. Owned by Heritage New Zealand since 1974 (their great-grandson donated it), it is registered as Category 1 on the heritage register.[3]

References
  1. Pickmere, Nancy. "Kemp, Charlotte and Kemp, James". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  2. "Kerikeri History Archives". kerikeri.co.nz. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  3. "Kerikeri Mission House". Register of Historic Places. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
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