Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Margaret McGregor Reid was born about 1849 in New Zealand – the daughter of Charles Reid, an insurance agent, and Charlotte Thyne.
She grew up in Dunedin and married William Espie, a clerk, at her home on 23 February 1869.
They had two children, one who died in infancy.
Around 1881, due to domestic troubles, William left the country and left his daughter in the care of a friend.
Margaret re-married on 21 October 1889 at the Dunedin Registry Office to William Johnson Wright, a carpenter and widower with four children.
Together they had a further three children and, when Margaret signed the suffrage petition, the family were living in Kirkland Hill, Dunedin.
Margaret died at her home on 18 October 1902, she is buried in the Reid family grave in the Southern Cemetery.
William died in 1912, he is buried with two of his sons in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
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.
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