Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Bessie/Elizabeth Stewart was born about 1850 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland – the daughter of James Stewart, a porter, and Jane.
She married George Edward Taylor, a joiner, in Dundee on 11 October 1872 and they had two children before they emigrated to Otago in 1877 on the James Nicol Fleming.
They had a further five children in New Zealand and when Bessie signed the suffrage petition they were farming at Ratanui, south of Owaka.
Bessie died at her home on 11 June 1909 and George died in 1914 in Dunedin, they are buried together in the Ratanui Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/