Isabella Winton

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.

Isabella Sim was born on 15 December 1841 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Sim, the foreman in a spinning mill, and Jane Samson.

Her mother died when she was about four years old and her father re-married soon after.

In 1858 Isabella, with her family, which included secen children, emigrated to Otago on the Strathfieldsaye.

She married John Winton, a commission agent, in 1861 and they had 10 children as well as 2 adopted daughters.

The family lived, at first, in Portobello on the Otago Peninsula then beside the Port Chalmers to Dunedin railway line.

John was declared bankrupt in 1872 and some-time after the family moved to Rothesay where John ran a fish curing business & where Isabella signed the suffrage petition.

In 1898 the family opened the Edinburgh A1 Dining Rooms & Temperance Hotel in the Octagon in Dunedin.

By 1911 they were living in Leith St, Dunedin where they celebrated their Golden Wedding.

A 'pleasant gathering took place in honour of the occasion' at the Otago Early Settlers Hall.

John died in 1913 and Isabella died at her home in Leith St on 1 August 1919.

They are buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.

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