Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Isabella Barr was born about 1832 in Glasgow, Scotland.
She married James Newton on 8 January 1854 and soon after they emigrated to Australia.
They had four children in Victoria, two who died in infancy, before the family moved to New Zealand.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further four children, two of these children also died in infancy.
In December 1871 James died when he was crushed by falling stone while working at a quarry.
Isabella last child was born in April the following year.
When Isabella signed the suffrage petition in Forth Place she was actually living in, nearby, Regent Road.
She died at her home in Dunedin on 23 August 1907 and is buried with James in the family grave in the Southern 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au