Sarah Kennard

Biographical information contributed by Helen Sophia Kennard:

This is probably Sarah Ann Kennard, born on 23 December 1867 at Palmerston in Otago. She was the fourth child of William and Elizabeth (nee Wallace), and granddaughter of one Otago's earliest Pāhekā settlers, William and Maria Kennard. Sarah's father William (jnr) was nearly 4 years old when his family arrived on the Magnet, along with the Carey family, at Waikouaiti in April 1840. William's (jnr) brother, Sarah's uncle, Thomas Baker Kennard was 'The First White Boy Born in Otago' (book by J Herries Beattie, published by AH & AW Reed, 1939).

Sarah Ann Kennard married Richard William Prue (1861-1940) in June 1901 at Waimate. They were market gardeners, as were other Kennard family members, and grew raspberries. Sarah's father, William, grew the first raspberries in the district. Sarah and Richard did not have children. Sarah died 27 November 1940.

Sarah's sisters, Elizabeth Jane Telfer and Alice Cousins, signed the Suffrage Petition at Waimate.

(A much less likely possibility is that this is Sarah Catherine Ward Kennard (nee Stokes). Sarah Catherine Ward Kennard (nee Stokes) was born in 1873. She married Donald Kennard at Waimate on 10 September 1890. Donald, born 16 April 1865 at Waikouaiti, was the eldest son of Thomas Baker Kennard. Sarah and Donald had 10 children. The first child, Mary Wallace Kennard, was born the same year of the Suffrage Petition, 1893. The last child, Patricia, was born when Sarah was 47 years old. Donald died 11 August 1922, when Patricia was just 2 years old. Sarah Catherine Ward Kennard died in 1951.)

Reference: the Kennard family history With Those Who Came First second edition by Beryl Maultby, printed by Progress Print Dunedin, 1990

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