Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Cowan was born about 1848 in London, England, she married William Thomson Wright, a joiner from Scotland, in Chorlton, Lancashire in 1870.
They had two daughters while living in Manchester before moving to Dumfriesshire in Scotland where two sons were born.
The family emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Nelson at the time their youngest child was just one month old.
At least a further six children were born after their arrival in the country, one who died in infancy.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition the family were living in Clyde St, Roslyn, Dunedin.
In the 1910s they moved to the West Taieri Orchard near Outram where Mary died on 16 May 1924.
William died in 1936 at his daughter’s home in Kokonga, they are buried in the family grave in the Northern 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
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