Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Wilson was born about 1838 in Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire, Scotland – the daughter of Walter Wilson, an agricultural labourer, and Mary Bell.
She married George Johnstone, a ploughman, on 22 May 1863 in Westerkirk and shortly after their marriage they boarded the City of Dunedin bound for Otago.
They had seven children – 'after a few years spent in different parts of the Clutha district and Owaka' they took up their farm at Purekireki in the Owaka Valley.
This is where Mary signed the suffrage petition and where she died on 5 September 1925.
George died the following year – they are buried in the Owaka Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz