See also Caversham research databases
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Frances Elizabeth Ashby was born in 1851 in Croydon, Surrey – the daughter of Adam Ashby, a master millwright, and Eleanor Richardson.
She married John Maine Dark, an accountant, in 1870 and they had four children, one who died in infancy.
The family emigrated to New Zealand about 1878 and their last child was born in 1879.
They settled in Dunedin where John worked as a newsagent and when Frances signed the suffrage petition they were living in Rockyside, Caversham.
John died at their home in 1916 – he is buried in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
In the 1920s Frances went to live near her daughter in Tauranga. She died at her daughter’s home on 31 August 1935 and she is buried in the Tauranga Methodist Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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