Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Martha Perry was born about 1831 in Carthew, Wendron, Cornwall – the daughter of John Perry, a farmer, and Susannah Treloar.
She married Joseph Jewell Mayne on 4 March 1853 at Hayle, Cornwall and soon after their marriage they emigrated to Victoria, Australia where Joseph worked as a gold miner.
They had four children in Victoria, one who died in infancy. Joseph left Victoria for the Otago goldfields in 1861 and Martha followed with the children five years later.
They had a further three sons in New Zealand and lived on the Queenstown goldfields.
Joseph died in 1884 while mining in the Rees Valley at the head of Lake Wakatipu and when Martha signed the suffrage petition she was living in Queenstown.
She died on 28 January 1913 at her home in Western Terrace, Queenstown and is buried with Joseph in the Queenstown Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Queenstown Lakes District Council http://cemeteries.qldc.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Cornwall OPC https://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/