Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Peterson was born about 1831 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire – the daughter of Peter Peterson and Mary Smith.
Her family emigrated to Otago in 1849 on the Mooltan and settled in Dunedin.
Mary married Plumpton Clemison, a sawyer, on 4 November 1851 in Dunedin.
They had 11 children and had a farm at Sawyers Bay on the Otago Harbour.
Plumpton died in 1873 when their youngest child was one year old. Mary continued to run the farm and was still in Sawyers Bay when she signed the suffrage petition.
She died on 1 October 1903 and is buried with Plumpton in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.
Her obituary said she 'had to face all the hardships and discomforts incidental to the early days, which by all were taken as a matter of course. She was of a retiring disposition, but very kind-hearted, and will be sadly missed by a large circle of relatives and friends.'
Sources
Going Abroad http://www.ngaiopress.com/drhocken.htm
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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/