Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Barbara Douglas Brownlie was born on 31 January 1841 in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of Alexander Brownlie , a cotton power loom tenter, and Jane Douglas.
She emigrated to Otago in 1870 on the “Christian McAusland” and she worked as a milliner.
In 1876 she went into partnership with her sister Helen (See 101 H S Brownlie) as 'H and B Brownlie, Milliners and Baby Linen Importers' in Princes St, Dunedin.
Barbara had 'just arrived from Home, after an absence of two and a half years, during which time she was most successful in establishing agencies in London and Glasgow.'
In the 1880s Barbara and her sister became active in the Salvation Army https://issuu.com/salvos/docs/ajsahistory_vol_6_iss_1/s/11783628
When Barbara signed the suffrage petition she was living with Helen in York Place, Dunedin.
The sisters moved back to Scotland in the late 1890s and, in 1901, they were living in Rothesay, Buteshire running a ladies’ outfitters.
Barbara died in Rothesay on 14 July 1919 after which Helen moved to East Helensburgh where she died in 1920.
Sources
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Scotlands People https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk