Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Maria Ellis was born in 1844 in Slaugham, Sussex, England – the daughter of James Ellis, an agricultural labourer, and Lydia Ford.
She had a daughter in 1867 in Brighton, (See 90 A Crosweller) before she married George James Crosweller, a painter, on 18 February 1871 in Brighton.
The following year the family emigrated to Otago on the Christian McAusland and they settled in Mosgiel.
They later moved to Caversham and had five children, two who died in infancy.
In the 1880s they were living in Milton when George, who was working as a hawker, was declared bankrupt owing £162 19s 2d.
Maria signed the suffrage petition in Milton.
George died in 1899 after which Maria advertised her nursing services in the newspaper 'open for engagement in nursing as formerly.'
She died on 23 June 1903 at her daughter’s home in Lyttleton, she is buried with George in the Fairfax Cemetery, Milton.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
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