Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Lydia Reed was born in 1853 in Newington, Surrey, England – the daughter of William Reed, a linen draper, and Agnes Elder.
She married Enoch Cutts, a brass moulder, in London in 1872.
They had a son who died in infancy before they emigrated to Canterbury in 1874 on the Atrato.
They had a daughter shortly after their arrival before they moved to Victoria Australia where their next child was born in 1877.
They were back in New Zealand, living in Christchurch, by 1879 when Enoch was declared bankrupt.
Their last three children were born in New Zealand and when Lydia signed the suffrage petition they were living in Princes St, Dunedin and Enoch was working as a hairdresser and barber.
They later moved to Palmerston, north of Dunedin.
Enoch died in 1906 when he took an overdose of laudanum while staying at the Empire Hotel in Waimate.
Lydia moved back to Dunedin, she died at her daughter’s home on 22 June 1923. They are buried together 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
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions