suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Rigg
Given names: 
Mary Flora
Given address: 
Cargill St
Sheet No: 174
Town/Suburb: 
Central Dunedin
City/Region: 
Dunedin
Notes: 

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

Mary Flora Rigg was born in 1856 in Sydney, to parents Elizabeth and Charles Rigg. Charles was a Methodist Reverend and as a result the family moved around a lot.

At the time that she signed the Petition, Mary was living on Cargill St in Dunedin with her mother and sister Rosa Rigg, and was working as a nurse. Mary also worked for the Women’s Franchise League, witnessing and certifying enrolment claims, so she must have been actively involved in the wider suffrage movement.

Mary and Rosa have signed the Petition twice: both of their names appear on Sheet 152 and Sheet 174.

In 1903 Mary made a claim against the City Corporation for underpaying her. She had been working as matron at the Caversham Immigration Barracks Hospital (fever hospital).

Mary never married, and following the death of her mother in 1918, she moved to Auckland.

Mary died in the Auckland Infirmary in Epsom on 17 May 1940, aged 84. 

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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