Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Bessie Phillips was born about 1845 in Cornwall – the daughter of miner William Henry Phillips.
She came to Victoria with her family around 1851 and they then arrived at Port Chalmers in 1861 on the Empress of the Sea.
Bessie’s father mined around Gabriels Gully before the family moved to Nelson.
Bessie married John Heron, an undertaker, on 27 February 1866 at Wakefield.
They lived in Greymouth where Bessie signed the suffrage petition and they had 10 children, two who died in infancy.
In the mid-1900s John retired from business and they moved to Whanganui where Bessie died on 16 September 1919 and John died in 1922.
They are buried together in the Aramoho Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/