Arthur's Stone was erected by Rev Richard Taylor on 9 November 1840 to mark the place where his ten year old son Arthur Spencer Taylor fell from his horse and was killed on 12 October 1840. Arthur Taylor is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist at Waimate North. [The grave has a bronze plaque which is thought to have been placed there some time ago by the artist Cranleigh Barton (1890 – 1975), belived to be a relative. The wording on the plaque reads:
Arthur Spencer
ELDEST SON OF THE
Rev. R. Taylor M.A
Born at Coveny in the Isle of Ely
SEPT 14TH 1830
Killed by a fall from a Horse
Oct 12th 1840
____________
Iwaenga nui tatou i te ora
Kei te mate]
Richard Taylor's wife Caroline (Arthur's mother) had been visiting the Church Missionary Society mission at Te Puna.
Richard Taylor made this entry in his diary for 12 October 1840:
I set off this morning taking some horses and poor Arthur on one of them to bring back his dear Mamma. When we got about 4 miles on the way he whipped his horse and it set off, and being on a side saddle he was shaken off. His foot hung in the stirrup, he was dragged a considerable distance, and received several kicks one behind the left ear when his shoe tore and he fell. I picked him up just in time to receive his last gasp which was only perceptible; he never moved nor uttered a sound, but as it were in an inconceivably short time breathed out his soul to the Lord who gave it, poor dear boy, his was indeed a short and quick step from time to eternity, the pain and groans were mine I stayed with the body about two hours when Mr James Davis came to my help and soon after his father. I had 2 natives with us who made a rude bier on which he was carried back a mournful return, we were met with the tears of the whole school. In the evening my dear wife and Laura came when our expected joy was darkened a general gloom hung over us.
A contemporary newspaper gives the following account:
FATAL ACCIDENT.
On Monday the 11th instant , a fatal accident occurred on the road between Waimati and Kerikeri, which has plunged the family of the Revd. Mr Taylor, of the Waimati in deep distress. Mr. Taylor's eldest son, a boy of 1O years of age was, with two youths in the Seminary, accompanying his father to meet his mother and sister, on their return from Tepuna. While riding gently along, a touch from a switch which he held in his hand caused the horse to start. He fell, and was dragged by the stirrup, the animal at full gallop, for more than a hundred yards, when his foot became disengaged. His father was instantly with him, but he expired immediately in his arms. The suddenly bereaved parent had to return home with the corpse of his son, borne by Natives, and a friend met the mother with the appalling intelligence. The event has excited the deepest sympathy. The funeral took place on Wednesday the 14th, and was attended by the young gentlemen in the Church Missionary Seminary, of which Mr. T. has charge, and many Europeans and settlers in the neighborhood, in addition to the Missionary and Mission families. Arthur Taylor was a remarkably intelligent boy, and has left strong evidences for so young a child, of a reflective mind.
Taylor's biographer J M R Owens provides subsequent details, based on Richard Taylor's Notebook:
Mr King, the school's usher and Mr Hatch the second master sat up with the body and on the fourteenth the burial service was held. Arthur's cloak and cap, with his Bible and Prayer Book, were placed on the coffin, with flowers. More than eighty Europeans attended, for, as it happened, all the members of the northern mission were present in Waimate at the time. Henry Williams conducted the service and Taylor preached the funeral sermon, choosing as his text the words written in Arthur's Bible, 'in the midst of life we are in death'.
Taylor's Journal later gives an account of the erection of the stone:
Nov. 9th [1840], I returned late in the evening, having waited to see a basaltic column 7 ½ feet long put up on the spot poor Arthur met his death. It was carried from the Kerikeri. 10th. I took Steel with me this morning and we cleared a circle around the stone on which we sowed clover seed & white washed the stone.
The wider significance of this event is that it provided the stimulus for a rare account of the family life of the early missionaries in New Zealand and the hardships experienced by those families. Richard Taylor wrote at length in his Journal about the events leading up to and following Arthur's death, and his family's reaction to those events. R M S Taylor, a descendant of Richard Taylor, has remarked:
The tragic accident to Arthur gives us cause to remember the children of pioneer families, for they too played their part in sometimes demanding circumstances, and those circumstances served to mould fine character during childhood years. The accident prompted an unusually detailed word picture of one fine little fellow. While the missionary grieved for his firstborn he also disclosed more of his fatherly love and pride, and of his own faith and fortitude, than might otherwise have been known to us. We feel sympathy for the family, and we honour Arthur for his achievement of so much maturity of character in so short a life.