suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Billens
Given names: 
E
Given address: 
Kingsley St Sydenham
Sheet No: 535
Town/Suburb: 
Sydenham
City/Region: 
Christchurch
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Helen B. Laurenson (great-granddaughter of Emma Billens)

Emma Daltry was born in Oldham, England, on 24 September 1850. She seems to have had little schooling for in the census of 1861 she is listed as a ‘nurse’ aged 10 years old, but her younger brother George, then aged 8 years, was listed as a ‘scholar’.

With her parents Joseph Bailey and Sarah Daltry, Emma and George were among the persons who had been ‘selected from the distressed Cotton Districts for passages to Canterbury’. They sailed on the British Crown on 6 May 1863 with over 400 passengers on board. The ship arrived on 17 August 1863 a passage of 103 days, the first ship to arrive in Lyttleton direct from Liverpool.

Aged 21 years, Emma married Frederick Robert Billens on 1 November 1871 at the Wesleyan Chapel, Waltham. The Wesleyan (Methodist) Church was an important part of the family’s life.

Emma’s father Joseph Bailey Daltry died at his home Kingsley St, Sydenham on 24 June 1888 only a couple of months before her husband Frederick died 7 August 1888. Frederick who was born in London on 3 May 1844, died at the age of 44 years after a brief illness. Emma was left a widow with nine children when she was 37 years old.

Emma died, aged 77, on 24 December 1927 at Monks Spur, Redcliffs, the home of her daughter Fanny Peek .

Image

Emma Billens

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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