Mrs Manks

Biographical information provided for the He Tohu exhibition:

Isabella Manks (nee Somerville) was born in 1840 in Carlisle, UK. She married Robert Manks (UK) in 1866 in South Yarra in Melbourne, Australia. In 1867 Isabella and Robert emigrated to New Zealand and their first child Isabella Jane Manks was born in Christchurch in 1867. Isabella and Robert went on to have seven children in total, five daughters and two sons: Isabella Jane, Selina, Grace Somerville, Ada, Jane, Robert Somerville and Alice. The family lived in a house they owned in Montreal Street in Christchurch. Isabella died on 20 March 2015, two years after her husband Robert, and is buried in the Linwood Cemetery in Christchurch.

Isabella Manks signed the petition as did two of her daughters, Selina and Isabella Jane.