Biographical information provided by Terence Davidson, for theHe Tohu exhibition, and Katherine Blakeley.
Isabella Booth was born on February 9th 1838 in Fordoun, Kincardineshire, Scotland, the daughter of James Booth, a watchmaker, and Margaret Stephen.
She emigrated to Otago with her sister Mary in 1863 on the Victory, and married John Freeland on October 8th 1866 in Dunedin. They had 9 children.
In the 1880s they ran the “popular coaching house” the Pigroot Hotel on the road between Palmerston and the Maniototo Plains, providing “food and lodging for thousands of travellers by the coaches running between Dunedin and Clyde”.
On the road to goldfields, changing horses at the Pigroot Hotel 1884 – Hocken Library
After the Central Otago railway opened the customers reduced in numbers, and they moved to Shingly Farm near Morrisons on the Pigroot Road.
This is where they were living when Isabella signed the suffrage petition, and where John died in 1895.
After his death Isabella & her family moved to nearby Huntly Farm, where Isabella died on August 1st 1926. She is buried with John in the family grave in the Palmerston Cemetery.