Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Phillis Oliver was born about 1844 in Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland – the daughter of Robert Oliver, a carpenter, and Mary Thomson.
She married David Chalmers Lancaster, a watchmaker, in Gateshead, Durham in 1881 and, in 1883, they emigrated to Wellington on the Wairoa.
David died at Arrowtown in Central Otago in 1885 and Phillis re-married on 25 April 1887, at St Paul’s Presbyterian Manse in Invercargill, to William Murdoch.
They lived in Queenstown where Phillis signed the suffrage petition and where, for about 15 years, she cared for her elderly aunt Janet. (See 107 Miss Oliver)
They moved to Dunedin in later life where William died in 1927.
Phillis died on 2 November 1931, she is buried with William in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz