Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Christiane/Christina Tapp was born about 1839 in Cranston, Edinburghshire, Scotland – the daughter of Edward Tapp, a limestone miner, and Margaret Blackadder.
She married William Downie on 20 March 1863 in Cockpen, Edinburghshire and later that year they boarded the Wave Queen bound for Otago.
They had no children and spent a couple of years working on the Taieri Plains before moving to Waitapeka where they bought their farm 'Tapp Hall' and where Christina signed the suffrage petition.
William died at their home in 1906 and Christina died on 18 April 1908, they are buried together in the Romahapa Cemetery.
Christina’s obituary said she 'was a shrewd business woman, and of a bright and cheerful disposition, and one who during her life did many acts of kindness in her own neighbourhood, and who also kept an open house for any wayfarer, no one ever being sent away hungry from her door. She was a woman of many parts, and took a lively interest in all things in the district. For a number of years she was a successful exhibitor at the Balclutha Flower Show, as well as the Puerua Show.'
Sources
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/
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