Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Presley was born about 1816 in Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland – the daughter of George Presley, a wright, and Isobel Murcar.
She married George Matthews, a gardener, in January 1840, in Scotland.
Soon after their marriage they moved to Ireland where George became head gardener at a large estate, at least two of their seven children were born in Ireland.
The family emigrated to Otago in 1850 on the Lady Nugent and settled in Dunedin where George developed a plant nursery in Moray Place.
The family built a new house in the 1870s at 'Hawthorn Hill' in Mornington.
George died in 1884 and when Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition she was living with her family in Hawthorne Avenue, Mornington.
She died on 19 August 1911 and is buried in the Northern Cemetery.
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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz