Signed family name
Gillespie
Signed given name
Jessie
Given address
Anderston
Notes
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jessie Thompson was born about 1853 in Coldingham in Berwickshire, Scotland – the daughter of George Thompson, a shoemaker, and Janet Nisbet.
She married, tailor, David Gillespie on 12 August 1870 in Coldingham and they had three sons, one who died in infancy.
They moved to Glasgow around 1871. The family emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Auckland and settled in Dunedin where they had a further eight children, one of these children also died in infancy.
When Jessie signed the suffrage petition they were living in Anderston in Roslyn.
David died in 1928 and Jessie died at her home on 8 November 1932 – they are buried together in the Northern Cemetery.