Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Matilda Ellen Settle was born in 1856 in Bolton, Lancashire, England – the daughter of William Settle, a cook, Chelsea pensioner, and Emma Livsey.
She married Joseph Kaye in 1883 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
It is unclear what happened to Joseph, by the early 1890’s Matilda was living in Dunedin running a fancy goods shop in the Royal Arcade.
When she signed the suffrage petition she gave her address as Maclaggan St – the shop appears to have been on the corner of the street and the Arcade.
In August 1894 the shop was relocated to nearby 29 Rattray St, less than a year later a removal sale was held and the business shifted again, this time to Ogg’s Corner, South Dunedin.
(On the corner of Hillside Rd and King Edward St, now called Cargills Corner).
September 1896 found Matilda returning to her old premises in the Arcade and a little less than a year later she held an auction of 'the whole of her household furniture and general stock of Fancy Goods.'
Matilda died at Fordell, near Wanganui on 8 March 1901, she is buried in the Osmond family grave in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
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