Isabella Sommerville

Signed family name

Sommerville

Signed given name

Isabella

Given address

Sunnydale

Sheet number

155

Town/Suburb

North Dunedin

City/Region

Dunedin

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Isabella Melrose was born on 22 February 1839 in Roxburghshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Melrose and Agnes Douglas. (See 146 Agness Melrose)

She married blacksmith Alexander Sommerville on 22 June 1863 in Edinburgh and they had three children, one who died in infancy, before the family emigrated to Otago in 1879 on the Auckland.

They settled in Dunedin and when Isabella signed the suffrage petition were living in Sunnydale, North East Valley.

Alexander died in 1894 and Isabella died at her grandson’s home in St Kilda on 26 September 1915 – they are buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.