Biography contributed by Clare Cramond
Charlotte Gilligan was born in 1860 to Mary and James Gilligan; one of six children. They were all living in Wairoa when James died; Mary was around 13 years of age. Around two years later in 1875 she married James Archibald Fletcher who was 17 years older than Charlotte.
From 1877, the children arrived. A baby (Ida) born in 1877 did not survive, then Lucy, Bertha, Alice, James, Teresa, Doris and finally Irene and Lottie in the new century. Doris and Lottie also died as infants. The family lived at Marumaru where James was the hotelkeeper and also ran about 200 sheep. The children attended school in nearby Frasertown.
Although her name was Charlotte, she chose to call herself Charlotta on her marriage record and when she signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition. She was registered on the 1893 Electoral Roll as Charlotte.
Charlotte died around a week after their youngest daughter Lottie was born in 1903 aged just 43. She was buried in the Wairoa Cemetery. Charlotte’s husband died in 1906 as the result of a seizure while working beside the Wairoa river which ran along the back of the hotel. He did not leave a will and their eldest son also James Archibald, had to take responsibility for the hotel, the family and administrating his father’s affairs.
Sources
Births Deaths and Marriages Online https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Sheep Returns https://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1884-I.2.2.6.3
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200515154/charlotte-fletcher
James Fletcher’s death https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19060430.2.13 Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10649, 30 April 1906, Page 2
New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L99X-M9PT?cc=1865481&wc=4BD7-W25%3A1045247001%2C1045285501 : 21 February 2019), Gisborne Court > Probate records 1906-1907 P281-P300 > image 32 of 299; Archives New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office
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