Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Colquhoun was born on 2 September 1833 in Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of John Colquhoun and Margaret Ramsay.
She married John Norrie, a carter, on 2 December 1856 in Glasgow and they had four children. The family emigrated to Otago in 1863 on the Nelson - their seven-month-old daughter Mary died on the voyage.
After staying in Dunedin for a short time the family travelled to Southland and, a few years later, they settled near Milton.
They had a further five children and John worked on the railways before he took up farming.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living at 'Brookland', North Branch, Tokomairiro.
John died in 1902 and Mary died at her home on 26 January 1904, they are buried in the Fairfax Cemetery, Milton.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz