Christina Dempster

Signed family name

Dempster

Signed given name

Christina

Given address

Clyde Street

Sheet number

148

Town/Suburb

North Dunedin

City/Region

Dunedin

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Christina Napier was born about 1820 in Scotland.

She married George Dempster on 23 March 1860 in Fife and shortly after they boarded the Pladda bound for Otago.

Their first child was born on board and they had a further six children after their arrival, two who died in infancy or early childhood.

They lived, for a time, in Oamaru then in Clyde St, Dunedin where George worked as a carpenter and Christina signed the suffrage petition.

In 1891 Christina took out a prohibition order against her husband. She said 'that by excessive drinking her husband misspent, wasted, and lessened his estate, injured his health, and greatly interrupted the happiness of his family'. The order was granted.

Christina died at her home on 30 January 1910 and George died in 1913 – they are buried in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery.