gift of Auckland City Council, 1965, collection of Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, 1965.78.267, col.1534, ocm814, T718

Jane Holloway King was the third European-Pakeha girl born in New Zealand, and the first to live her entire life here. She was the eldest daughter of Church Missionary Society missionaries John and Hannah King, who arrived in New Zealand with Rev Samuel Marsden in December 1814. Jane was born at Rangihoua, the first Mission Station, in 1818.

Her sampler is stitched on very fine cloth, and shows the skills taught to girls in the Mission School, where she was both a pupil and a teacher. Literacy, numeracy, religious instruction, and needlework are all featured.

In 1855 Jane married Rev Richard Davis of Waimate North. After Richard’s death in 1863 she moved to Auckland with her young son. She died at his residence in St Stephen’s Ave, Parnell, in 1894.

For me Jane’s sampler combines stories of New Zealand’s earliest European settlers with the accomplishments of a dutiful daughter. It compels us to consider the lives and times of first generation Pakeha women in New Zealand.

Vivien Caughley, Volunteer, Applied Arts