Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Maria Denton was born in 1869 in Northamptonshire, England, the daughter of William Denton, an agricultural labourer, and Eliza Wilby.
She emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Scimitar with her parents and younger brother William who died on the voyage of measles and bronchitis.
The family settled in Dunedin before moving to Sandymount on the Otago Peninsula where Maria signed the suffrage petition. Her mother Eliza also signed the petition.
She married William Upton Harvey on 31 March 1899 at the Portobello Road Church. They had two sons.
William died in 1914 at their home in Musselburgh and Maria died on 20 October 1939. They are buried together in the family grave in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz