suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Pope
Given names: 
Maria Sophia
Given address: 
Hawthorn Road Papanui
Sheet No: 202
Town/Suburb: 
Papanui
City/Region: 
Christchurch
Notes: 

Biographical information provided by Briar Barry for the He Tohu exhibition:

Maria Sophia Pope (née Bloor) was a talented business woman in Christchurch where she ran a successful shop in Market Square (Victoria Square), selling stationery and English periodicals and newspapers. Several branches of 'Mrs Pope's Variety Store' were still in existence up until the early 1990s.

In 1868 Maria’s store was destroyed by fire which had spread from the adjoining premises of Swale and Rankin, grocers. Although bystanders helped to clear furniture and stock from the shop, the building was gutted and many of the goods were lost. The fire had been started deliberately by Thomas Densley Swale to destroy the evidence after he had killed his business partner, John Rankin. Maria's daughter, Sarah Ann, was an important witness in the trial, which resulted in Swale's conviction for murder.

Maria acted as a witness in a court case in 1869 which alleged that the confectioner's shop next door to her own (rebuilt) store was being used as a front for a brothel. 

More information about Maria Sophia Pope is available on her Te Ara bio.

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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