See also Caversham research databases
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Marion Reid Stewart was born about 1847 in Ayrshire, Scotland – the daughter of John Stewart, a master slater, and Marion Burns.
She moved to Glasgow with her family in the late 1860s where she married William Alexander, a grain merchant, on 23 June 1870.
They had four children before the family emigrated to Otago in 1879 on the Timaru.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further seven children, three who died in infancy, and where William worked as a baker.
When Marion signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Caversham.
In later life William worked as a church officer at the Caversham Presbyterian Church.
In 1897 William’s health deteriorated 'he had had two strokes of paralysis' and 'he had been despondent the last two of three weeks.'
One evening while the family were having their tea William went into the back yard and shot himself in the abdomen – he died soon after.
Marion died on 23 January 1916 at her home in Dunedin – she is buried with William in the family grave in the Southern 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
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