Elizabeth Tattersall

Signed family name

Tattersall

Signed given name

Elizabeth

Given address

G. King Street

Sheet number

Town/Suburb

Central Dunedin

City/Region

Dunedin

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Elizabeth Maria Dawson was probably born in England – she married Charles John Tattersall, a veterinarian, in London in 1864.

They had a son the following year and they emigrated to Otago about 1867.

Their daughter Florence was born in February 1873 and in October of that year Charles died of 'disease of the bowels'.

Their son Richard died in 1877 and Elizabeth’s life appears to have gone downhill after that.

In September 1882 Elizabeth was charged with having no lawful means of support. She stated that 'she was in receipt of money from Home, and shortly expected another remittance'. She had been found 'near Pelichet Bay at night-time, having been turned out of a house of ill fame. The child with her was bareheaded and in a neglected state'.

The case was withdrawn but Florence was charged as a neglected child and committed to the Industrial School for four years.

One month later Elizabeth was charged with hiring a sewing machine and selling it, she was sentenced to one month imprisonment with hard labour.

Over the following years Elizabeth was regularly charged with drunkenness and prostitution.

In 1885 she was charged of drunkenness jointly with Ann Jane Seals (See 63 Hannah Seals).

When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition she was living in Great King Street. Around this time an acquaintance of Elizabeth’s, Catherine Stevenson, was charged with striking Elizabeth on the head with a tomahawk. A group of women had been 'drinking together in a house in a right-of-way off King street', when Elizabeth refused to 'shout another 6d for beer' she was struck twice on the back of the head. Catherine was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison.

Elizabeth continued to appear in court – her 49th conviction occurred in 1895 - she disappears from the records after this and the rest of her life is unknown.