Mrs J. Saunders

Surname:

Saunders

Given names:

Mrs J.

Given address:

Hanover St

Sheet No: 45

Town/Suburb:

Central Dunedin

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Mary Rudd was born about 1837 in Tasmania, Australia. She married Enoch Leigh, a 30-year-old stonemason, on 11 August 1853 in Hobart - she was 16-years-old at the time.

The couple travelled to Victoria and in 1855 their daughter Charlotte Mary was born at Sandhurst.

Enoch died in Victoria the following year and Mary travelled back to Tasmania with Charlotte.

She married John Saunders, a 31-year-old mariner on 10 December that year in Hobart.

They then travelled to Victoria again where Joseph was born in 1858 followed by Mary Ann in 1860 - she died at the age of three months. John jnr. was born in 1861 before the family sailed for Otago in September 1862.

They settled in Dunedin where a further 10 children were born, four who died in infancy.

In 1863 Mary and John featured in the newspapers in an assault case which was dismissed. The judge 'administered a caution to Mrs Saunders of whom he had heard from a reliable source that she was a perfect pest in the neighbourhood in which she resides.'

Their daughter Charlotte died in 1870, aged 14 and Mary jnr. died in 1892 at the age of 16.

When Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Hanover St, Dunedin.

John died in the Dunedin Hospital in 1899 and Mary died on 22 August 1920.

They are buried together in the Northern Cemetery under the name of Sanders.