Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Martha Robbins was born on 26 November 1856 in St Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands – the daughter of Charles Robbins, a porter, and Charlotte Townsend.
Mary emigrated to Otago in 1872 on the Hydaspes accompanied with her, probably, widowed father.
She married Richard/Dick Farrant, a blacksmith at the Hillside Workshops, in 1884 and they had two daughters.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Cutten St, South Dunedin.
Richard and Mary were active members of the Independent Order of Rechabites, a prohibition and abstinence society.
Mary died at their home in South Rd, Caversham on 8 February 1929 and Richard died in 1938, they are buried with their daughter in the Andersons Bay 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
The Island Wiki http://search.jerripediabmd.net/
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