Sarah Higgins

Sarah Higgins (30 January 1830 – 23 September 1923) was a New Zealand homemaker, midwife, community leader and writer. She was born in Lydden, Kent, England on 30 January 1830. Early life Sarah was the youngest child of five, born to Stephen Sharp and his wife Mary Ann Emery, who died in October 1833 when Sarah was only 2. Her father remarried in June 1834 however in October 1834, her step-mother too died in childbirth, along with her baby, a year to the week from when Sarah's mother had died. Sarah's grandparents then moved in with the family. Sarah received a basic education, including sewing and reading, however did not learn to write. When Sarah was eleven, her father answered an appeal for skilled manual labourers to emigrate to New Zealand in the employ of the New Zealand Company, an independent company revived by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who became Director. The New Zealand Company primarily required young married couples perhaps with a young family, or older couples with grown or near grown children, who had manual skills such as carpentry, farming, labourers, builders, millers and so on, who could contribute to building the new colonies on land purchased by the Company and sold as stakes to the emigrants and to increase the future population. Stephen Higgins was initially turned down on application due to his widower status, however doctors intervened and wrote a letter to the company directors instructing them of the ill-health of Sarah's older sister, and confirming that they could do nothing further for her, but advising that it was in the professional opinion that the fresh air of New Zealand would be of profound benefit to her prognosis. Stephen Sharp was accepted. He sold his belongings and used the money to purchase his stake and assisted passage. New Zealand The Sharps - Stephen, Susannah aged 21, Robert aged 18, George aged 12 and Sarah aged 11 left Dover on board the Bolton in October 1841, the journey taking five months. Susannah Sharp died aboard the Bolton on the voyage and was buried at sea. The remaining family arrived in New Zealand on 15 March 1842, in what is now Lambton harbour close to Nelson Colony, Wellington. The Sharps were initially sent to make shelter in one of the communal buildings, put together for the newly arriving colonists. They remained there for some time, sleeping on a rough bed of ferns, with borrowed blankets.