Elizabeth Guard (3 December 1814 – 16 July 1870) was an Australian settler of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

Biography

She was born in

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia on 3 December 1814. In 1830, she married the former Australian convict Jacky Guard and settled in his

Whale hunting Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry a ...

station on New Zealand. She was the first white woman in the southern island of New Zealand and gave birth to the first white child, her son John, in 1831, and was is as such counted as a colonial pioneer. During a trip to Australia in 1834, the ship sank outside the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-larges ...

of New Zealand and she and her children was taken hostage by the Maori, while her spouse was allowed to return to Australia for a ransom. This case became a case celebre in contemporary press. During her time with the maori, she married the chief Oaoiti and was relatively well treated, though sensationalist stories claimed that she was taken naked away into captivity. Her spouse returned a couple of months later with a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

regiment who slaughtered the maori brutally. She returned to New Zealand with her spouse in 1836.

References

1814 births 1870 deaths People from Parramatta Australian emigrants to New Zealand 19th-century New Zealand people {{NewZealand-bio-stub