Wiremu Kīngi Maketū

[2][3] Maketū was accused of then killing his employer Elizabeth Roberton (a widow), her two children and Isabella Brind, who was the granddaughter of Rewa, a chief of the Ngai Tawake hapū of the Ngāpuhi iwi of Kerikeri.

Upon this Whiria (Pōmare II)[5] left the meeting as he did not want to be involved in fighting between the different hapū of the Ngāpuhi, which had occurred in 1830 in the so-called Girls' War.

The meeting ended with Heke and his supporters conducting a Haka on the beach at Paihia, firing their muskets, which were loaded with ball.

[1] Beginning on 1 March 1842, Maketū was tried in the Supreme Court in Auckland with Chief Justice William Martin presiding.

[2] On the morning of his execution, he requested to be baptised in the Anglican rite and took the Christian names "Wiremu Kīngi".

[1] Later in 1842, Swainson, who was the attorney general, wrote to the Colonial Office, giving his legal opinion that the proceedings was usurpation of Māori sovereignty and went beyond the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The response by James Stephen of the Colonial Office concluded "Mr Swainson may think this is unjust or impolitic or inconsistent with former Acts, but still it is done".

[2] Moon (2013) comments that "what made this extension of British law into Maori communities possible in the manner in which it happened was the 16 December 1841 resolution which the twenty chiefs signed.