Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Law was born about 1845 in Lanark, Scotland – the daughter of Samuel Law, a hand loom weaver, and Jean Spooner.
She emigrated to Otago in 1867 on the Elizabeth Fleming accompanied by her brother and she married James Black on 4 January 1871 in Dunedin.
James was a mason and worked on the building of the Bank of New Zealand, Town Hall, Knox Church and Otago Boys High School.
In the 1880s they went to farm at Gimmerburn near to two of Elizabeth’s brothers.
They had, at least, six children and when Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition in Dunedin they were living in Gimmerburn.
In the early 1910s they retired to live in Dunedin where James died in 1918 and Elizabeth died on 3 June 1923 – they are buried together in the Southern 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