suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Pearson
Given names: 
E.
Given address: 
M. P. Lawrence
Sheet No: 154
Town/Suburb: 
Lawrence
City/Region: 
Otago
Notes: 

Best guess Mount Pleasant Lawrence (based on community contribution below)

Originally transcribed as R Pearson

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Elizabeth and John had two children in Victoria after their marriage, their daughter died in 1862 at one year of age.

John left his family in Victoria in 1861 to travel to Otago but four months later he returned to bring his family to New Zealand.

The family settled at Wetherstones, near Lawrence, and John worked at mining and storekeeping and they had a further eight children.

They later bought land nearby and commenced farming at Mount Pleasant where they were living when Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition.

John died suddenly at their home in 1903 and Elizabeth died at her daughter’s home in Dunedin on 13 December 1915, they are buried together in the Lawrence Cemetery.

Elizabeth’s obituary said 'she was a very shrewd and capable business woman'.

Sources

BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/

Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Interment.net http://www.interment.net/data/nz/otago/lawrence

BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au


Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

Community contributions

1 comment has been posted about E. Pearson

What do you know?

Gaylia Powell

Posted: 23 Apr 2019

R Pearson, MV Lawrence, may have been the younger sister of my Great Grandfather, John Pearson. If this is the case, her name was Rose Ann Mulholland Pigot Pearson (1877-1956). The family lived on a farm property called Mount Pleasant, Hill Street, on the edge of Lawrence. I think that, rather than MV, the address would be MP Lawrence.

However, Rose would have been about 14 at the time of the petition, and so the signature is more likely that of her mother, Elizabeth Pearson. Here are Elizabeth's facts:
Maiden name: Elizabeth Thompson
Birth: 1839, Leitrim, Londonderry
Death: 13 Dec 1915, Dunedin, New Zealand
Father: Hugh Thompson (-1865)
Mother: Anne Malone (ca1803-1876)
Marr: 13 Jan 1860, All Saints Church, Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia

Elizabeth Pearson came to NZ after gold was discovered at Gabriel's Gully, with her husband, John Pearson, and infant son. They subsequently had eight more children, most surviving to adulthood.