Sophia Louisa Kemp was the ninth child of the Rev. Richard Davis and his wife Mary, and was born at Kerikeri in 1830. This was the year that her father, an agriculturalist, James Hamlin, a weaver, and George Clarke, a gunsmith, were sent to Waimate North to establish the first inland mission station in New Zealand.

The following year, even before their houses were properly finished, the men sent for their families. In April 1831, when the Davis family moved into their temporary cottage at Waimate, the attractive little toddler Sophia was blissfully ignorant of the leaking roof, the draughty windows and the half-finished chimney. Nor did she worry about inquistive Maoris lurking in the tall fern that pressed in on the houses of the new Pakeha settlers.

As the years of her childhood slid happily by she was unaware that she was watching history in the making. When she was five Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist, and Captain Fitzroy, later to be Governor of New Zealand, visited the Davis home. Both men were delighted with the flower gardens and orchards.

Darwin recorded:- "...fine crops of barley and wheat were standing in full ear..."

Captain Fitzroy wrote:- "A little room used by Mr Davis pleased me much... ...it contained a collection of excellent books..." This library was to be very important to Sophia and her brothers and sisters, all of whom [became] great readers.

When she was about ten Sophia witnessed a very amusing scene. A Maori chief, Wi Hau, had purchased a team of four bullocks and a dray from the Waimate Mision Station. This team was one of the few in New Zealand at that time, and Wi Hau and his followers were absolutely delighted with these marvellous animals, the posession of which would certainly raise their mana in the eyes of other tribes.

Sophia watched a large crowd of excited Maoris assemble to take the outfit to their pa near Waitangi. After a great deal of shouting they managed to yoke up the bullocks and started off with a full load of Maoris in the dray. Alongside ran their friends, yelling and gesticulating and urging them on. The bullocks took fright and bolted. When they reached the sharp turn where the store stood the wheel struck the corner post and shot the passengers off on to the road. After the dray had been repaired at the Mission Station the Maoris, in a more sober frame of mind, determined to take no further risks, so about 100 of them pulled the heavy dray to their pa themselves, and the bullocks were driven in a separate operation.

An important event took place in 1842 when the first (and last) Bishop of New Zealand, Bishop Selwyn, arrived at Waimate North, and "The Bishop's palace was the college, and the college was the Bishop's palace." The 12-year-old Sophia often spoke with Bishop Selwyn during the two years that he lived in what is now called "The Old Vicarage".

She was intrigued when the students arrived. "Why do the students wear those awful black gowns and peculiar caps?" she asked her father.

One by one, Sophia had seen her sisters married - first Matilda, then Mary Ann, and in 1843 both Serena and Jane, followed some years later by Margaretta. On 25th October 1854, Sophia, now 24, married James Kemp junior, who at that time was farming at Te Ahu Ahu, near Waimate, where for a short time the young couple lived. James had strong links with Kerikeri, for before the marriage he and his brother Richard had operated the Stone Store for their father, the original James.

Sophia and James did not stay long in the Waimate district, for by 1856 they were back in Kerikeri living in a house that previously had belonged to the lay missionary, Charles Baker. The olny evidence of the existence of this house now is a hollow where the cars park, about a chain from the church. It was here that their eldest child, Francis James Kemp, and possibly their daughter Edith Mary, were born.

Sophia loved the view from this home, which overlooked the peaceful Kerikeri Inlet. She thought it specially beautiful when its waters were smooth and still like a green mirror with the trees on the riverbank reflected in it. However, she was not to enjoy this beautiful spot for long, for she and her husband moved to a little square box of a house with a kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms, in Waipapa. All the mission houses, particularly those belonging to the second generation, were given very English names, and Sophia and James called their home "Brooklyn".

Most of their children were born in these cramped quarters. This little house was later moved to the end of what is now Kemp Road and is still there. Sophia's grandchildren who lived across the river from it called it the "sulky house" because its overhanging verandah gave it a brooding look.

Some time after James' mother, Charlotte Kemp, died in 1860, Sophia, James and their family moved into the histotic old home we now call Kemp House, the oldest wooden building still standing in New Zealand. Kemp House was built for the Rev. John Butler, and was not completed until 1822, but as he left Kerikeri the following year he was not able to enjoy living in this rather ambitious home he had designed for himself for very long. For the next nine years the Butler's house had several occupants, [including] James Shepherd, George Clarke and Thomas Chapman.

In 1832 the original James Kemp and his wife Charlotte moved in, and until the property was gifted to the Historic Places Trust in 1974 by a descendant, Ernest Kemp, it had been lived in by members of the Kemp family for 142 years. A tradition begun and carried on by successive Kemp women, including Sophia, was the placing of a lamp in the front window to guide shipping, including scows, trading vessels, and that of their own menfolk, up the Inlet at night. This lamp was first lit by whale oil, then by kerosene, and now by electricity. When Sophia and her family moved into Kemp House it must have seemed like a palace to her.

Although she was not considered very "robust" she must hace had hidden stamina for she bore eight children without any medical help beyond that of a married woman friend. Cooking and sewing for her large family filled her days, but she always found a little time to relax in her garden. As she grew older she had Mrs Kingi to help her in her garden, and her daughters Charlotte and Gertrude, who never married, to assist her in the house.

Housework was a full time job in those days, for there were no wall-to-wall carpets, no vacuum cleaners, no washing machines, no electricity, no detergents (everyone had to make their own soap) - in fact, none of the modern conveniences that are considered necessities today. Tanks supplied the water, so great care had to be taken in its use. For instance, no cleaning your teeth under a running tap, no daily bath, though in summer a dip in the river every day was popular. About 1912 the water situation was eased somewhat at Kemp House, as a windmill was erected to pump the water up to the tanks from the river. This windmill was agreat boon as in those days erikeri had frequent droughts in summer. Sophia Kemp's granddaughter, Sophia Black [subsequently Mrs Eastgate] who, as a child visited her nearly every day, knows the exact spot where the windmill was situated.

For many years in the Bay of Islands, THE function of the year was the Waimate Show which no one would dream of missing. Sophia, members of her family, married and single, and her grandchildren, always attended - making a real Kemp contingent. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best and looked forward to having a really exciting day.

Sophia and her family travelled to the Show in their buggy or on horeseback over the "good dray road" from Kerikeri to Waimate - the first road to be constructed in New Zealand. The making of this road was supervised by the lay missionaries George Clarke, James Hamlin, and Sophia's father Richard Davis, and this road is still in existence [today].

On Show Day most people, especially those who were exhibiting stock of any kind, had to rise at dawn and didn't return home until late, but that was all a part of the fun. In 1897 the programme included riding and jumping events for men, women and children, dog trials, sheep-shearing, weight guessing competitions, and a "full Show schedule" - and all for one shilling entrance fee! In those days it took a great effort to attend such a function, so everyone made the most of it, and the Show usually ended with a Grand Concert or Ball.

One of her granddaughters, Sophia Black, gave an intimate description of her grandmother in the early 1900's :-

"Granny, as I remember her, always wore a black dress with a full skirt to the ground, and a white lace collar, often one she had crocheted herself. On her black frock she wore a white shawl, which is now displayed in the Kemp House.

"One of her treasures which came to me is a lovely oval brooch, which a jeweller thought must have been in the family for a long time. It is about two inches long and round the outside is a gold-coloured surround. Inside this is a pearly, creamy-white stone and then a narrow gold-coloured metal oval enclosing the inch-long centre, in which someone's hair is curled into a figure-of-eight. The jeweller thought that this piece of hair would be that of the original donor, and his photo would have been in the locket at the back of the brooch. The gold-coloured metal is Pinchbeck, an alloy of copper and zinc."

Ethel, one of Sophia Kemp's daughters had married John Black in 1890, and they and their family of eight lived above the Kerikeri Inlet, so were the nearest grandchildren to her. Sophia Black continues:-

"We children loved going to Granny Kemp's place because there was always something interesting to do and see. Opposite the back door was a building that contained the wash-house, the grainery [sic] and at the back of these, the stables. We would run down the pipi-shell path to the wash-house which had two big galvanised iron tubs sitting on wide boards. Near the tubs was a timbered chute, and if we were lucky we would see the water from the tubs being tipped out and rushing down it like a miniature waterfall.

"Around the corner of the grainery and the wash-house and through a little wooden gate we would run, and there were the stables on the other side of the other two buildings! What a fascinating place! In it were Granny's buggy and troughs out of which the horses ate their hay and grain. On the far wall were three boxes that we called 'mangers' where the hens laid their eggs. We thought it was a special treat when Granny let us grind the corn in the grainery to feed the hens, and then collect the eggs. There was something exciting finding out how many eggs there were in the nests.

"Granny was gentle but firm, and never raised her voice, yet we all obeyed her every wish. Every Sunday all my brothers and sisters were expected at Kemp House where we had prayers and hymns, which we sang around the piano, accompanied by Aunt Gertrude, Granny's youngest daughter. We would not dream of not attending this little service."

James and Sophia Kemp had eight children:-Francis, Edith, Cecil, Charlotte, Ethel, Gerald, Raymond and Gertrude. Of these, Cecil, Charlotte and Gertrude stayed on in Karikeri. James died in 1899 but Sophia lived on until 1915.

In her later years, when she was cared fo by her daughters Charlotte and Gertrude, Sophia's life was calm and pleasant. Nearly every fine day she went out for a drive in her buggy, perhaps to see her son, Cecil, who lived in what is now called the Homestead Hotel, or to visit Margaretta Bedggood at "Springbank" about three miles away.

During the last month of her life when she became bedridden, she was moved from her upstairs bedroom into the parlour. Almost to the end she was able to enjoy the bright flowers in her garden and the green waters of the Kerikeri Inlet.