Mary Anne Gillies

Signed family name

Gillies

Signed given name

Mary Anne

Given address

Tapanui

Sheet number

100

Town/Suburb

Tapanui

City/Region

Otago

Notes

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Mary Ann Gillies was born on 24 October 1854 in Glasgow, Scotland – the daughter of John Gillies, an egg merchant, and Catherine McLeod. (See 100 Catherine Gillies)

She emigrated to Otago on the Strathallan in 1858 with her family and they settled in Hampden, North Otago.

Mary Ann’s father died there in 1873 and about six years later the family moved to Tapanui.

When she signed the suffrage petition Mary Ann was working as a dressmaker.

She moved to live in Gore with her mother about 1897 - sometime after her mother’s death in 1899 Mary Ann moved to Invercargill where she worked as a teacher of dressmaking.

She died in Invercargill on 25 January 1917 and is buried in the Tapanui Cemetery.