Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Fagg Bateman was born in 1852 in Croydon, Surrey, England – the daughter of Thomas Bateman, a beer retailer, and Mary Bailey.
She married Philip George Crosswell in 1872 and they had two sons before they emigrated to Wellington in 1874 on the Soukar accompanied by Philip’s young brother Alfred.
Their youngest son died soon after their arrival - a son and a daughter were added to the family in the late 1870s.
The family were living in Dunedin in the 1880s where Philip worked as a painter.
He died at their home in 1887, aged 35. After Philip’s death Mary earned her income by letting furnished rooms to boarders.
Mary signed the suffrage petition at 212 Princes St, Dunedin where she ran a registry office, employment agency, while she was living at Stuart St running a boarding house.
In 1905, when her two remaining sons died in March and May, Mary was advertising her services as a ladies’ nurse.
She died on 31 December 1933 in Dunedin and is buried with Philip in the family grave in the Southern 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