suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Bambery
Given names: 
Bella
Given address: 
Hawthorne Dale
Sheet No: 94
Town/Suburb: 
Mornington
City/Region: 
Dunedin
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Isabella Thomson Beath was born on 13 March 1855 in Portmoak, Kinross, Scotland – the daughter of Andrew Beath, a hand loom weaver, and Jean Crombie. (See 94 Jane Beath)

She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1875 on the Oamaru and they settled in Dunedin.

Isabella married John Churchwood Beath, an engine driver, on 8 September 1882 and they had three sons.

When their youngest son was just 16 months old, in 1891, John lost his job and became depressed. He committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor.

The findings of the inquest were that John was 'temporarily insane'. 

When Isabella signed the suffrage petition she was living at Hawthorndale, Mornington working as a weaver.

She did not marry again and she died on 2 September 1937.

There is no mention of her in the cemetery records but a plaque on the family grave in the Northern Cemetery suggests that she is buried there with John.

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

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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