Caroline Abraham

Caroline Abraham
Caroline Harriett Abraham
Born	Caroline Harriet Hudson 1809 Wanlip, Leicestershire, England
Died	June 1877 (aged 67–68) Bournemouth, England
Nationality	English/New Zealand
Known for	watercolour artiist; writer; wife of an Anglican bishop

Caroline Harriet Abraham (née Hudson, 1809 – 17 June 1877) was born in Wanlip near Leicester. She became a New Zealand artist who created a useful record of that country in the nineteenth century. She was the influential wife of a bishop and the mother of another. She put together a book, with others, supporting Maori rights.

Caroline Harriet Palmer was born and baptised in 1809 in Wanlip, Leicestershire, England. She was the daughter of Sir Charles Thomas Hudson Palmer and his wife. Her father had changed his name from Hudson to Palmer in order to meet the terms of an inheritance. In 1850 she married the Rev Charles Abraham and they emigrated to New Zealand shortly after where her husband wanted to work with George Selwyn. They arrived in Auckland on 6 August 1850 with their servant. Selwyn appointed her husband to lead a new college, St John's College, he had founded in Auckland. Her husband trained both Māori and European youths.

Her husband was ordained to become the Bishop of Wellington whilst on a trip to England in 1857. Her only son, Charles was born the same year and he went on to be the Bishop of Derby.

Abraham was a water colourist and her scenes of early New Zealand immigrant settlements are held by the National Library of New Zealand and Auckland City They are an important source of information from this period. During the New Zealand Wars she advocated for the Māori.

The publication that she helped create was called Extracts of letters from New Zealand on the war question and it was published in 1861. She wrote it with her aunt and uncle, George and Sarah Selwyn, her own husband and Sir William and Lady Mary Ann Martin. George Selwyn was a Bishop and Sir William Martin was the Chief Justice. Abraham believed that the Māori people (then called natives of New Zealand and similar) were a proud race whose rights needed to be considered. This book was distributed privately after being printed in London.