Grace Bramley

Biography contributed by Dr Tracey Wedge and Daisy McWedge

Grace Bramley, nee Bowyer, was almost 37 when she signed the petition for women’s suffrage. Grace recorded her address as Pine Grove, Kaeo. This was the home, on their 85 acre farm, that she and her husband William had built and where they raised their family of seven children, along with their granddaughter. Kaeo was home for Grace. She was born there on 5 August 1856. At the age of 17 she married there on 8 August 1873, and died there aged 76 on 5 March 1933.

William Bramley, born 9 October 1849, had emigrated to New Zealand from England with his parents as a 10 year old. In 1892 he travelled back to England, leaving Grace at home on the farm with the children. William corresponded with his family, relaying his activities and the sights he had seen, but this was not a trip he would return from. How his life ultimately ended remains a family mystery.

When Grace signed the petition she was unaware she would not see her husband again, but women’s suffrage was clearly on her mind.

 One of Grace’s granddaughters recalled that she “seemed a crabby woman to us children ‘Don’t do this, Don’t touch that, Be quiet girls!’ Looking back she was a real character, but most of the family left her and she always seemed a lonely old lady” (Bramley, p.36).This remembrance speaks of a woman who expected children to be well behaved and useful – unsurprising when considering Grace’s life experience.

Grace was the sixth child of Harriet Bowyer (nee Hansen) and her husband Samuel. Harriet was the sixth child of Thomas and Elizabeth Hansen (nee Tollis). Thomas and Elizabeth were part of the first Christian Missionary Society settlement founded in 1814 at Rangihoua under the protection of the Rangatira Ruatara.

The women in Grace’s genealogy were strong and resourceful, traits that she too would have needed to deal with raising her children alone. Could the strong women in her ancestry have influenced her thoughts on the importance of women’s suffrage?

Sources

Bramley, G., Family Life 150 Years of the Bramleys in Kaeo, 2009, privately published, Kaeo.