Elizabeth Prescott

Surname:

Prescott

Given names:

Elizabeth

Given address:

Bay View Road

Sheet No: 62

Town/Suburb:

Saint Clair

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Originally transcribed as Elizabeth Drescott

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Elizabeth Excell was born about 1836 in Brighton, Sussex, England – the daughter of Benjamin Excell, a harness maker, and Ann.

She married Ernest Ricardus Prescott, a blacksmith, (sometimes known as George) in Brighton in 1852 and early the following year the couple emigrated to Victoria, Australia on the Elizabeth Thompson.

They had four children, one who died in infancy, before they sailed for Otago on the Hussar in 1863.

They settled in St Bathans, a gold mining area in Central Otago, and had a further six children.

In 1870 Ernest/George was declared bankrupt after which he appears to have started his business again making steel pipes for gold sluicing claims. He was again declared bankrupt in 1884 and an auction was held to wind up the estate.

Obviously not everything sold as the following year Elizabeth was attempting to sell the business as she was leaving the district and another auction was held of land and household effects. Elizabeth was living in Bay View Rd, Dunedin when she signed the suffrage petition and Ernest appears to have returned to Australia, he died in Western Australia in 1911.

Elizabeth died in Dunedin on 22 March 1917, she is buried with two of her children in the Southern Cemetery.