Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.


Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
14Sheet 8 — The Cook Strait (Henry Williams) SheetMohiroaTe Ropiha MoturoaTe Āti AwaTe Matehou Port Nicholson 29 April 1840

Te Ropiha Moturoa signed Te Tiriti at Port Nicholson on 29 April 1840.

His two brothers came to Te Whanganui-a-Tara with Ngāti Mutunga in 1827. Moturoa held land near Aro Street and at Pipitea Pā but he mainly lived on a section in Moturoa Street in Thorndon, where he had a weatherboard house and grew potatoes. He took the name Te Ropiha (Hobbs) after his baptism.

Moturoa and his first wife Ahinga had one daughter, who married a whaler and lived in England.

See also Wellington City Council, Nga Tupuna o Te Whanganui-a-Tara: Volume 1, Wellington City Council & Wellington Tenths Trust, 2005, p. 13

Contributed by Jacquie Morris

Te Ropiha Moturoa (1790?-1874) is buried in Bolton Street Cemetery, Te Whanganui-a-tara.

His later wife was Ramari (1788?-1886). They were both Te Matehou hapū, Te Atiawa.

Ramari was the daughter of Te Atiawa chief Hoani Te Matahiwi and Takuaiterangi Takahu. Ramari died in Puketotara, Taranaki. She had two sisters: Huhana Te Autoroa (1810?-1890) who married Te Manihera Taukare; and Harena Kawanui Kauamo (1818?-1846) who married a whaler, Joseph Henry Robinson (1814-1879). Waiwhetu people.

Source: Nga Tupuna o Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Vol. 1) . Wellington City Libraries, accessed 12/02/2024, https://wellington.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/4038


If you have more information about this treaty signatory please add a community contribution below or contact us at [email protected].

Community contributions

No comments have been posted about Te Ropiha Moturoa

What do you know?

Can you tell us more about the information on this page? Perhaps you have a related experience you would like to share?

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Comments will be reviewed prior to posting. Not all comments posted. Tell me more...