Nationality English | Name Sarah Cripps | |
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Born Sarah Rigelsford ca. 1822 London, England Died 1892
Wellington, New Zealand Known for Running accommodation house, store and post office at Whareama, Wairarapa, New Zealand; also community midwife for the area | ||
Sarah Cripps - Leave Behind (Official Music Video)
Sarah Ann Cripps (c.1822 – 8 June 1892) was a New Zealand accommodation-house keeper, shopkeeper, postmistress and midwife. She was born Sarah Ann Rigelsford in London, England, in circa 1822. As a young woman, she set up her own dressmaking business, and married Isaac Cripps, a police officer, in 1844.
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After participating in Charles Enderby's failed whaling settlement at Hardwicke on the Auckland Islands from 1849, Isaac and Sarah moved to the Wellington Region with their four young children and lived in Island Bay. In 1857 the Cripps bought 40 acres of land at Whareama on the route to the Hawke's Bay Region and established and ran an accommodation house there called "Sevenoaks". The homestead (pictured) was built in wattle and daub with toi-toi and raupo thatching.
Cripps became well known throughout the Wairarapa for running the guest house, as well as a small shop and the local mail service. Her most important community involvement was as a mid-wife, as the nearest doctor was based in Masterton, some 20 miles (32 km) away. She also home-schooled her ten children: Mary Ann, Caroline, Emily, Harriet, Margaret, Ellen and Sarah (twins), Isaac, Thomas and George.
Cripps later moved to Wellington, where she lived on Adelaide Road in Newtown. She died in Wellington on 8 June 1892 after a long illness and is buried at Karori Cemetery. After her death, she was called "the best loved woman from Wellington to Ahuriri", the latter being the Māori name for Napier. She was survived by her husband, who died in 1904 at their daughter's place in Upper Plain near Masterton.
Cripps is covered in volume 1 of Miriam Macgregor's book Petticoat Pioneers.