Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Isabella Gibb was born about 1849 in Livingston, Scotland. She arrived in New Zealand about 1858.
On 28 August 1867, at Knox Church, she married Thomas Pearce - a plumber from Cornwall.
They had three children before 1886 when Thomas was declared insolvent. Two years later Thomas was trying to find work in Melbourne and wrote a letter to a New Zealand paper warning people not to come over as there was little work to be had.
The family was back in Dunedin in 1893 living in Parkside, Caversham, when Isabella and her daughter signed the suffrage petition.
Isabella’s daughter died the following year, aged 24.
Thomas died in 1920 and Isabella died on 29 July 1926. They are buried together in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.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