Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Amelia Margaret Beckett was born in 1847 in London, England – the daughter of Edward Beckett and Margaret Carter.
She emigrated to New Zealand with her family in the 1860s and they settled at Tuapeka.
Amelia married William Bailey, a miner, on 10 August 1868 at Knox Church, Dunedin.
They had eight children, one who died in childhood, and when Amelia signed the suffrage petition they were living at Maerewhenua in North Otago.
In May 1894 their eldest son died and later that year, in October, their second son drowned when the steamer Wairarapa was wrecked at Great Barrier Island.
Amelia died soon after on 9 December, she is buried with her sons in the Livingstone Cemetery.
William re-married in 1906, he died in 1927 and is buried in the Old Oamaru Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Waitaki District Council https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/Services/Cemeteries
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