Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jane Phillips Edmonds was born in Ireland about 1842, the daughter of Rev John Edmonds.
She married James Simpson on 18 January 1865 in the Tully Presbyterian Church in County Longford. Soon after their wedding, the couple came to New Zealand where James worked as the 'Receiver of Revenue' and 'Clerk to the Bench' at Ross in South Westland. They stayed there until 1876 when James was transferred to Stafford.
A year later they moved to Dunedin. They had 13 children, at least two of who died in infancy.
When she signed the suffrage petition, Jane was living with her family in Filleul St. Her daughter Jessie also signed the petition.
In 1895 Jane charged her husband with threatening to do her bodily harm.
Less than a month later James was fished out of the water at Ocean Beach, he was charged with attempting suicide. The newspaper reported: “In the last year he had been overtaken by domestic trouble, and following on that came his dismissal from his situation. His troubles becoming insupportable, he had taken to drink, and while on the verge of delirium tremens he made this attempt on his life.”
James was not convicted as the court found he had been temporarily insane and had since this he had not been drinking. He was released on his own recognisance.
James died in 1912. Jane died on 29 May 1929. They are buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
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