Biography contributed by Wendy Napier-Walker.
Kate Wrigg was born Catherine Jane Keefe in 1853 to Peter Keefe and Margaret Keefe nee Leathen in New South Wales, Australia and was christened on 28 March 1853 at St Patricks church.
In 1872 Catherine (aka Kate) married Frederick Augustus Wrigg in the Anglican church, St John the Divine in Invercargill. Frederick was a Surveyor. He was the second son of Henry Wrigg C.E. and Mary Ann Wrigg nee Weekes.
Kate and Frederick had a daughter Ethel Maude Wrigg born in 1874.
In 1878 F A Wrigg is recorded in the Wises Directory for Waimate as a Surveyor.
Frederick Wrigg died on 22 December 1889 and is buried in the Waimate Old cemetery, Anglican section, Plot 000601 age 46 years under the name Fred A Wrigg.
At the time that Kate signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition she was living in Waimate.
By 1900 Kate had moved to the North Island and was living in the Manawatu/Rangitikei district. She later moved to Grey street, Waitara, the home of her daughter Ethel and son-in-law James Herbert Redward, and lived there until her death in 1932.
Kate died on 21 September 1932 age 79 years and is buried in the Waitara cemetery, Memorial area, Block 7, Plot 101B under the name Katharina Jean (Kate) Wrigg.
Sources
NZ DIA Marriage Index 1872/7730 Catherine Jane Keefe/Frederick Augustus Wrigg
Greenwood, William Te Waimatemate – History of Waimate County and Borough, The Timaru Herald Company Limited, Page 61
Waitaki District Council cemetery records online – Frederick Augustus Wrigg
Deaths, Auckland Star, 24 December 1889, Page 8 – Fred A Wrigg
New Plymouth District Council cemetery records online – Kate Wrigg
Death Notice, Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1932, Page 4 – Kate Wrigg
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
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