Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Katherine/Catherine Murphy was born about 1828 in County Tipperary, Ireland.
In 1849 she was convicted of stealing a watch and was transported to Tasmania on the Australasia.
She had a son in 1851 and the following year on 29 November 1852 she married John Cripps, an overseer, in Hobart.
They had, at least, five children before they moved to New Zealand in the early 1860s where their last child was born.
John died in 1871 and when Catherine signed the suffrage petition she was living in Park St, South Dunedin with some of her children.
Catherine died at her home in Dunedin on 19 January 1912 – she is buried with John in the family grave 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Libraries Tasmania https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au