Address confirmed by 1893 Electoral Roll where she is listed as 'housewife'.
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Jessie Holt, also known as Jane Kirby, was born about 1857 in England.
When she came to New Zealand is unknown but about 1867 she was admitted to the Caversham Industrial School in Dunedin.
In 1871 Jessie absconded from the Industrial School & was found hiding in a “house of ill repute”. Later the same year she before the court charge with “absconding from hired service as an inmate of the Industrial School”.
1873 saw Jessie in the news again. She had moved to Cromwell & was working at the Victoria Junction Hotel which she described as “nothing better than a brothel”. It was recommended that Jessie should leave town or she would be arrested as a vagrant. In May Jessie was arrested for vagrancy & sentenced to one month’s imprisonment in the Clyde gaol.
The following year she was in Dunedin & charged with “having no visible means of support”, the sentence this time was 3 months in prison with hard labour.
Jessie’s daughter Alexandrina was born in 1884, the following year she charged William Davis for maintenance – he was ordered to pay 5s a week for Alexandrina’s support until she was 14 years old.
In 1887 John Lowe was charged by Jessie of theft & assault, it was found that the “parties were on peculiar terms of familiarity” – the case was dismissed.
Jessie married John Lowe on June 26th1888 in Dunedin - in 1890 John was charged with failing to provide Jessie with “adequate means of support”.
John, however saw things differently, he said that “on several occasions when he came home he found a strange man in the house, and in one instance he gave his wife a thrashing in consequence of finding a man in her bedroom” - the case was dismissed.
When Jessie signed the suffrage petition she was living in Leith Street.
In February 1893 John, who was now in Wellington, was charged with disobeying a court order for maintenance, he was sentenced to one month in prison.
Their daughter was born in May 1893 & Jessie petitioned for a divorce in 1904 on the grounds of desertion, the divorce was granted.
Jessie married Charles McKellar in 1906, she died on June 8th 1914.
Charles died in 1923, they are buried together in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.