M Petherbridge

Signed family name

Petherbridge

Signed given name

Given address

Cobden

Sheet number

246

Town/Suburb

Cobden

City/Region

West Coast

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Margaret Furneaux was born in 1846 in Buckfastleigh, Devon – the daughter of Henry Furneaux, a labourer at a paper mill, and Mary Eales.

She married mason William Petherbridge in 1867 and they had four children, one who died in infancy, before the family emigrated to Canterbury in 1874 on the St Lawrence.

They settled in Waimate where their youngest son died shortly after their arrival.

They had a further eight children, including twins, five of these children were stillborn or died in infancy and are buried in the Old Waimate Cemetery.

In the late 1870s the family moved to Cobden, near Greymouth, where Margaret signed the suffrage petition.

She died at her home on 15 July 1910.

Her obituary said 'she had been a member of the [Methodist] church and had commended herself to all by her devotion, consistency and zeal. For many years she had been more or less a sufferer, but Christian fortitude had in her been strikingly exemplified.'

At the local Salvation Army service 'special songs will be given, and the Adjutant will make special reference to the late Mrs Petherbridge of Cobden, who was an ardent sympathiser of the Army.'

William died in 1918 – they are buried together in the Cobden Cemetery.