Ann Boyce (20 November 1827 – 28 February 1914) was a New Zealand founding mother and herbalist. She was born Ann Cave in Sydney, Australia, on 20 November 1827. In 1837 she came to
Port Underwood
Te Whanganui / Port Underwood is a sheltered harbour which forms the north-east extension of Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay at the northeast of New Zealand's South Island, on the east coast of the Marlborough Sounds.Wises New Zealand Guide, 7th Edi ...
in
Marlborough
Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to:
Places Australia
* Marlborough, Queensland
* Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993
* Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, with her family. She married William Boyce when she was 16 or less, and they lived in the Nelson area, and later
Motueka
Motueka is a town in the South Island of New Zealand, close to the mouth of the Motueka River on the western shore of Tasman Bay. It is the second largest in the Tasman Region, with a population of as of
The surrounding district has a numb ...
. She had 13 children.
Boyce had close contact with
Māori people
Māori () are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of Māori migration canoes, c ...
from the time she came to New Zealand. In Motueka, she was known as a herbalist especially knowledgeable about the medicinal use of plants, and provided medical assistance to Māori.
She died at Motueka on 28 February 1914 aged 87, having outlived her husband by nearly 19 years.
She was written about in a two-page story by her granddaughter
Flora Park Cave Spurdle called "Tales my grandmother told me".
Boyce's parents were Samuel Cave and
Susannah Noon, both sent to
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
from England as convicts. Noon was only a young girl when she was transported in 1811. An account of her life and those of the other women on the convict ship
''Friends'', ''The Girl Who Stole Stockings'', was published in October 2015.
References
1827 births
1914 deaths
Australian emigrants to New Zealand
Herbalists
19th-century New Zealand women
People from Motueka
People from Nelson, New Zealand
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