Lilly Griffiths

Signed family name

Griffiths

Signed given name

Lilly

Given address

Queenstown

Sheet number

107

Town/Suburb

Queenstown

City/Region

Otago

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Mary Ann Elizabeth (known as Lily) Lorden was born in 1867 in London – the daughter of Henry Lorden, a mariner, and Mary Cock.

She emigrated to Otago with her family in the early 1870s and they settled in South Otago.

Her father died in 1880 and her mother moved to Arrowtown where she re-married in 1883.

Lily married Griffith Griffiths, the proprietor of the Victoria Restaurant and Temperance Hotel, in 1883 - they had eight children and lived in Queenstown.

Griffith was declared bankrupt in 1884 after which he returned to his previous occupation of mining.

When Lily signed the suffrage petition the family were still in Queenstown.

Griffith developed bronchitis and asthma due to his mining pursuits and a subscription was taken up in 1898 to assist him in his recovery.

He died in 1902 when their youngest child was three-years-old and is buried in the Queenstown Cemetery.

Lily re-married in 1905 to Samuel Bone, previously a miner but at that time a carter for the borough council.

They had two children - the youngest was just five-years-old when Samuel died in 1915.

After Samuel’s death Mary ran a small boarding house until her health deteriorated.

She died in August 1930 at the Lakes District Hospital and is buried in the family grave in the Queenstown Cemetery.

Her obituary said she 'was a most kindly disposed woman. She was always ready to help a neighbour in sickness or distress, and of her small means she gave her mite ungrudgingly to all worthy appeals. Left as she was with big family responsibilities, she brought up her children wisely and trained them to be useful members of the community'.