A matter of life and death

Waitara historian Graeme Duckett dips into the lives of people who have made an impact in Taranaki. Ngapei Ngatata 1811-1906

Ngapei was the fifth child of Ngatata I te rangi (also known as Makoare Ngatata) and Whetowheto, of Ngati Ruanui and was born in 1811.This portrait is believed to have been painted in Wellington in 1888 when Ngapei was 77. Three exist, with one in the Puke Ariki museum and the two others in private hands.

Ngapei married Captain John George Cooke, son of Christopher and Elizabeth (nee Austen) who was related to the famous English novelist Jane Austen. Cooke arrived in New Plymouth aboard the Amelia Thompson, returning to England in 1850. John and Ngapei had a daughter called Te Piki Ngatata, (also known as Mary Ann Cooke) who married George Augustus Skelton; the couple lived on Smart Rd.

John and Ngapei also had a son George Gray Cooke, who died at the age of 19. Ngapei lived on ancestral land on the Te Puia reserve at Waiwhakaiho, which was later sold to Newton King.

She moved to the Hutt in Wellington, returning around 1894 and lived with her daughter in Smart Rd.

Ngapei’s father was the son of Rangiwhetiki and Pakanga. Through his mother Pakanga, he was an influential rangitira (chief) in the Ngati te whiti hapu of Te Atiawa.

He was a signatory of the Treaty of Waitangi and signed the Henry Williams’ copy aboard the ship Ariel, at Port Nicholson in Wellington. Ngapei died in Taranaki on September 2, 1906.