Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Margaret Shearer was born about 1811 in Dunoon and Kilmun, Argyllshire, Scotland – the daughter of Allan Shearer, and Margaret Black.
She married William McLeod, a soap and candle manufacturer, on 26 June 1835 in Abbey, Renfrewshire and they had nine children.
The family sailed from Glasgow in December 1863 on the Grasmere. The ship hit a rock shortly after sailing and the passengers were rescued by coastguard boats, losing most of their belongings. They were re-shipped on the Paria in January 1864.
Patrick Henderson and Co compensated the passengers by increasing the weekly allowance of “sustenance money” for the trip and “generously contributing the sum of five hundred pounds towards” replacement of items lost in the wreck.
The family settled, at first, in Invercargill where William founded the family soap and candle factory which was later to become McLeod Brothers Soap Factory.
In the mid 1870’s the family moved to Dunedin where William died in 1881.
When Margaret signed the suffrage petition she was living with her daughter Isabella at Knotts Cottage in Forth Street. (See 85 Isabella McLeod)
Margaret died in Christchurch on 21 September 1909 – she is buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Sources:
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