Note: initially transcribed as D G Ily
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Dorothy Grace Densham was born about 1825 in Chumleigh, Devonshire, England – the daughter of William Densham, a saddler, and Mary Greenslade.
Dorothy married William Charles Scully, a maltster, on 18 June 1849 at the parish church of St Mary Steps in the City of Exeter.
They had four children, three of who died in infancy, before they emigrated to Lyttleton on the Gananoque in 1860.
The family had a further three children after their arrival in New Zealand.
William worked as a brewer in Invercargill - he was declared bankrupt in 1873. The family then moved to Dunedin where William was again declared bankrupt in 1876, he continued to work as a maltster.
When Dorothy signed the suffrage petition the family were living in St Andrew St.
William died in 1901 and Dorothy died on 21 August 1902, they are both buried in the Northern Cemetery.
In 1949 Dorothy’s daughter in law donated a sampler to Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, this had been worked by Dorothy in 1832 at the age of seven.
It can be seen at https://collections.toituosm.com/objects/22311
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
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
PapersPast https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz