Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Isabella Ann Henderson was born in Northumberlandshire, England in 1851, the daughter of Roger Henderson, a farmer, and Magdaline Gillespie.
She married John Cumming, a carpenter, on 2 February 1874 in Newcastle–upon-Tyne. They had a daughter in 1874. Isabella and her daughter emigrated to Otago in 1876 on the Wellington; John had travelled before them.
Two sons were born before John died in Dunedin in 1879.
In 1889 Isabella’s eleven-year-old son William died after the administration of chloroform. His lungs were being drained of fluid and he died while under the effects of the chloroform, an inquest was held.
When she signed the suffrage petition, Isabella was living in Arthur St, Dunedin working as a hosiery maker.
In the 1910s she moved to Wellington where she died on 14 June 1931. She is buried with her daughter in the Karori Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
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
Wellington City Council https://wellington.govt.nz