Janet Divers

Surname:

Divers

Given names:

Janet

Given address:

Wairuna

Sheet No: 110

Town/Suburb:

Wairuna

City/Region:

Otago

Notes:

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Janet Bagrie was born on 26 February 1847 in Forgue, Aberdeenshire, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Bagrie, a farmer, and Margaret Duftan.

She emigrated to Otago in 1863 on the City of Dunedin with her widowed mother and siblings – her mother died on the voyage.

Janet married Mark Mayson, a mariner, on 5 September 1865 in Port Chalmers and they had one son.

In January 1868 Mark’s ship was sailing from Newcastle to Port Chalmers with a cargo of coal when it went missing. The crew was declared missing, presumed drowned.

Janet re-married on 11 March 1870, in a double wedding with her sister Isabella, to George Divers, a farmer.

They had three children and lived at Wairuna, South Otago where Janet signed the suffrage petition, her two sisters also signed the petition (See 110 Maggie Roy and 110 Isabella Cruickshank)

George died at a private hospital in Christchurch in 1906, he is buried in the Linwood Cemetery.

Janet died at her home in Clinton on 4 October 1918, she is buried in the family grave in the Clinton Cemetery.