Also signed as 67 Jessie Clark
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jessie Trail Fraser was born about 1835 in Caithness, Scotland.
She emigrated to New Zealand where she married Ralph Abercrombie Gunn, a ship’s captain and harbour pilot, on 13 March 1862 in Dunedin.
The following year Ralph drowned while boarding a ship in the Otago Harbour – his body was not recovered.
Jessie re-married on 9 March 1877 in Dunedin to widower Captain Charles Clark, a ship owner and ship chandler.
In 1884 they moved from Port Chalmers and took Waverley House in Vauxhall – unfurnished rooms were available for rent 'to parties desiring a change to the seaside.'
They later moved to South Dunedin before Charles’ death in 1888 – 'the flags at the Harbor Office and of the vessels at the wharves were hoisted half-mast to-day as a token of respect.' When Jessie signed the suffrage petition she was living with her brother James in Cameron St, South Dunedin.
She died on 17 December 1914 and is buried with Charles 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/