Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:
This signatory presents a mystery. The Ottaway family is well-known in Otago, and lived at Nuggets, Port Molyneux, for many years. Martha, the signatory below this one, is the family matriarch of the late 19th century.
The only member of the Ottaway family able to be found at this time with the initials M.H. is one of the Ottaway sons, James Mager or James Hinton Ottaway, who sometimes signed himself ‘James M.H. Ottaway’. Is this an example of one of the few men to sign the Women’s Suffrage Petition?
Further biographical information contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mystery solved. Presumably she was known as Martha Hinton Ottaway.
Martha Ottaway was born in 1873 in Essex, England – the twin daughter of George Ottaway, a labourer, and Martha Hinton. (See 88 Martha Ottaway)
Her twin brother died in infancy and she emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Sussex with her family.
The family lived in Waimate and Romahapa before settling at Nugget Point where Martha signed the suffrage petition.
She married Alexander Forrester Bell, a labourer, in 1900 - they lived at Port Chalmers and had four children.
Martha died on 22 May 1948 in Dunedin and Alexander died in 1951, they are buried together in the Port Chalmers 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