Recovering a young woman’s life from the court record
c.1845/46–1878
Waimate
Women and the law
Sexual violence
Ann Grigson was born at Raydon in Suffolk and baptised on 12 April 1846. In October 1859, she left England aboard the Ambrosine with her parents and younger sister. The passenger list recorded Ann as a domestic servant and placed the 13-year-old among the single women rather than with her parents. The ship reached Lyttelton in February 1860, and the family soon settled at Waimate.
On 2 September 1861, Ann married sawyer Richard Champion. The intention-to-marry record gave her age as 16 and recorded that her father consented because she was legally a minor.
In March 1862, while Ann was pregnant and Richard was away, a man entered their home and sexually assaulted and robbed her. Jacob Small was later convicted and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The surviving newspaper report records the verdict but tells us little about what support, if any, Ann received afterwards.
This event should be included because it is documented and reveals the vulnerability of a young woman living in a small colonial settlement.
Ann and Richard raised a family at Waimate. Their household also experienced serious loss, including the accidental death of their young son George in 1868. Ann died on 26 May 1878, aged about 32, and was buried in Waimate Old Cemetery.
Ann held no recorded public office, and there is not enough evidence to claim a wider civic achievement. Her story matters because it restores a teenage migrant, worker, wife and mother to a settlement history that otherwise records her mainly through marriage and a criminal trial.
Read the WuHoo story: The Story of Carmen’s Great-Great-Great-Grandmother Ann Grigson