Sarah Robinson

Biography contributed by Kathy McKee

Sarah Smart was born about 1824 near Banbridge, Co. Down. On 16 January 1845 she married there to Robert Willis, a private in the 65th Regiment.

On 4 October 1845 Sarah gave birth to her first child on the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary where the Regiment was then garrisoned. On 20 September 1846 they embarked on the Tory to deliver Irish convicts to Norfolk Is. - the soldiers acted as guards - after which they went to Hobart. Sarah’s second child was born there, but did not survive.

They arrived in Auckland on the Julia on 24 April 1847. Sarah’s next child was born in Wellington 13 October 1848, just a few days before a major earthquake. 

In 1851 they all sailed back to the UK and Sarah’s fourth child was born as they rounded Cape Horn on the Lord William Bentinck,  according to an entry in the family bible. Robert spent time in hospital and Sarah was at Weymouth Barracks when Ellen, her fifth child was born in 1854.

In 1856 they arrived back in Wellington on the Lancashire Witch. Sarah’s sixth child was born there in 1857 and in 1858 they arrived in Napier.  The soldiers lived in tents until the Barracks was built and Sarah Jane, their seventh child, was born on 9 November 1858. Sarah’s last child was born in Napier in 1860.

In December 1861 Robert, now a Sergeant, was discharged from the Army, after 19 years service, because of disability and embarked with 15 other invalid soldiers for the UK. He became an out pensioner of the Chelsea Hospital and received the NZ War Medal. In 1863 he returned to NZ as an emigrant and was granted 80 acres bordering the Waipawa River in Hawke’s Bay, but died on 5 May 1864 before he was able to take this up.

In 1866 Sarah remarried to Joseph Robinson, who had also been in the 65th Regiment. Joseph was drowned at Napier on 28 February, 1869. Sarah died in Napier on 10 August 1897.

Sarah was my husband’s great great grandmother and the mother of Sarah Jane Start who signed Sheet 431 of the petition.

Sources

Start family knowledge                                                                  

Military records on Findmypast                                                          

Willis family Bible

Birth Certificate Ellen Willis

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz

Death Certificate Sarah Robinson