Mrs Newson

Surname:

Newson

Given names:

Mrs

Given address:

Gordon Street

Sheet No: 32

Town/Suburb:

Central Dunedin

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Harriett Rosemma Turton was born in Hampshire, England about 1837 – the daughter of Isaac Turton, an agricultural labourer, and Ester Hillier.

She married John Murray Percy Newsome, a stationer, in 1860 in Surrey and they had seven children – three who appear to have died in infancy.

The family emigrated to Canterbury in 1874 on the Carisbrooke Castle, John’s occupation was then given as a gardener.

Another two children were born in New Zealand and the family settled in Dunedin where, in 1885, their home in Mornington was totally destroyed by fire.

The following year John died in Victoria, Australia.

When Harriett signed the suffrage petition she was living in Gordon St, South Dunedin.

She married again in 1895 to Henry Oliver, a widower and machinist at the Hillside Workshops.

Harriett died on board the S. S. Mararoa while sailing from Wellington to Lyttleton with her daughter on 17 July 1912, she is buried with her son in the Southern Cemetery.

Henry died in 1914, he is buried with his first wife, also in the Southern Cemetery.