Biographical information provided by Hannah Benbow for the He Tohu exhibition:
Elisabeth (also known as Elizabeth and Lizzie) Middlemass (1843-1928) arrived in New Zealand from Edinburgh in 1874 with her husband William and six-month-old son Thomas. They were assisted migrants on the Parsee. The family settled in the South Otago mining town of Kaitangata and had seven more children between 1875 and 1888, with William working as a carpenter until his death in 1896. Elizabeth died in Kaitangata in 1928, aged 86.
Further biographical information provided by Katherine Blakeley
Elisabeth Scott was born about 1843 in Scotland.
She married William Middlemass, a joiner, on 25 November 1872 in St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh.
They had one son before the family emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Parsee.
They settled in Kaitangata where they had a further seven children - William worked as a building contractor and undertaker and Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition.
William died at their home in 1896 and Elizabeth died in Dunedin on 17 October 1928, they are buried in the Kaitangata Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
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/