Biography contributed by Warren Gregory (great great grandson)
Elizabeth Taylor was born in Dublin in December 1833, the daughter of William Taylor and Arabella Wright. In 1857 she emigrated to Melbourne with her brother, Thomas, on the ship Montmorency.
In Melbourne she married Scotsman Alexander Cameron in 1862. Alexander was a lithographic printer and he soon moved to Dunedin to open a branch of Australian printer Fergusson and Mitchell. Elizabeth followed in 1863 arriving at Port Chalmers.
Elizabeth and Alexander had six children born between 1864 and 1876. When the children were young she lived in Elm Row but in 1877 Alexander built a house in Clyde St (now called Oban St), Roslyn and the family moved there.
Alexander died in 1891 but Elizabeth continued to live in Clyde St with her unmarried daughter Ellen, son William and brother Thomas who arrived from Australia. She was living in Clyde St when she signed the 1893 petition.
Not much is known about Elizabeth’s life, the electoral rolls listing her as ‘housewife’. Her granddaughter recorded that she had some art training and gave private lessons in painting. According to an obituary published in the Otago Daily Times she was a ‘respected resident of Roslyn’ and ‘… formerly a member of the Hanover Street Baptist Church and later became one of the original members of the Roslyn Baptist Church’.
Elizabeth lived a long life before dying in Dunedin in 1931 - her 99th year. She is buried with Alexander in the Dunedin Northern Cemetery.
Sources
Public Record Office Victoria https://prov.vic.gov.au/
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Gregory family personal records