Biography contributed by Clare Cramond
Ellen Hall, the daughter of a London printer was born around 1856 and migrated to New Zealand. In 1881, she married widower James Gunn Cramond who was a blacksmith, businessman and Dunedin City Councillor.
James died unexpectedly in 1891 leaving Ellen with six stepchildren and her three children, Florence, Violet and Norman. Her husband died intestate with no will, so over several years Ellen made several petitions to the Supreme Court to release funds from the estate to provide for the children.
Ellen Cramond signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition giving her (44) Dundas Street address and also registered on the 1893 Electoral Roll. She continued to live in Dunedin until the 1920s when she moved to Timaru to be with her son, a survivor of the Great War.
In 1935, Ellen wrote her final will and later moved briefly to Waitati where she died in care on 2 February 1943. She is buried with her husband and other family members in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin. Her stepchildren have descendants but Ellen’s own children had no grandchildren.
The panel commemorating Ellen and the other signatories on Panel 93 for the Suffrage in Stitches project was worked on by Ellen's brother-in-law's descendants, Alana and Victoria Cramond, and their mothers, Clare and Marina Cramond.
References
GRO Online Index https://www.gro.gov.uk
England and Wales Census 1861 database with images, Family Search https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2M2-D4WX:10 December 2017
Births Deaths and Marriages Online https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
PapersPast https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
National Archives Dunedin Regional Office DAAC/D239 96, Supreme Court, Dunedin. Letters of Administration, a256.
Archives New Zealand Probate Records 1843-1998 database with images, Family Search
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C95V-DSJS-C?cc=1865481&wc=4BKJ-6KJ%3A1291146802%2C1583239401 : 15 October 2015
Southern Heritage Trust Northern Cemetery http://www.northerncemetery.org.nz/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions