By John O'Hare

KERIKERI: Life could be hard in nineteenth century New Zealand – including for the Bean family, who helped establish the fledgling Kerikeri Mission Station in 1819.

William Bean was a carpenter who had arrived in New Zealand with his wife Elizabeth and three-year-old son William junior. William senior occupies a special place in New Zealand’s history as the builder of Kemp House – New Zealand’s oldest surviving building and a Tohu Whenua cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

Kemp House – also known as the Kerikeri Mission House – was completed in 1822, though its construction was not an easy time for the missionaries who had settled there. 

On July 12 1820, William and his wife Elizabeth lost their three-year-old son William junior, who appears to have died from intestinal worms. Because there was no church-yard at the time, the couple laid their son to rest in the garden in the grounds of the Kerikeri Mission Station. 

Rev. John Butler led the service, and later recorded his thoughts and feelings in his journal: 

“This afternoon I buried Mr Bean’s child in my garden. All the Europeans attended, and walked in regular order, as this tender lamb was the first Xian that it hath pleased our Holy Father to take to Himself and shield in His bosom from our little flock of Kiddeekiddee [Kerikeri].

“The afflicted parents indulged in grief, and seemed wholly absorbed in it for a time. We spent the evening together in prayer and praise, and the weeping family was not a little comforted thereby.”

William Bean Junior was the first Pākehā to die and be buried in Kerikeri. It’s hard to imagine what the family endured as they buried their son in what must have felt like a very foreign country.

Today a simple marker within the Kerikeri Mission Station records William Junior’s resting place.