Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
This appears to be Mary Elizabeth Pickworth signing under her maiden name.
Mary Elizabeth Pickworth was born in 1867 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire – the daughter of Robert George Pickworth, an agricultural labourer, and Eliza Clarke.
Mary emigrated to Otago in 1875 on the Gareloch with her family and they settled in Palmerston.
She had a son, Edward, in 1887 who died aged 2 months.
Mary married James Croft, a forwarding agent, in the Palmerston parish on April 18th 1890. They had 6 children and lived at Wedderburn.
Mary appears to have been visiting her family in Palmerston when she signed the suffrage petition.
In 1901 Charles committed suicide while away from home working. The verdict of the inquest was that he “committed suicide by hanging himself – brought on by financial troubles whilst suffering from temporary insanity”.
Mary moved to Dunedin with the children. She married James Malcolm Fraser in Dunedin on July 24th 1903.
They had a son the following year before they moved to Australia where their last son was born.
Mary died at Subiaco, Western Australia on June 14th 1942, and James died in 1947. They are buried together in the Karrakatta Cemetery, Nedlands, Western Australia.
Sources
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