Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Orbell was born on 28 June 1831 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England – the daughter of John Orbell, a miller, and Catherine Allen.
Mary emigrated to Otago in 1849 with her family on the Mariner.
She married John Richard Jones on 23 October 1855 at her parent’s home at Hawkesbury north of Dunedin.
They had at least 10 children and first lived at Puketapu then moved to Dunedin in the 1870s.
When she signed the suffrage petition Mary and her family were living in Heriot Row, and her husband was on the board of the Union Steam Ship Company. They later moved to Park St where Mary died on 25 February 1906.
“The flags at the Union Company’s and Harbour Board’s offices were flown at half-mast” the day after her death “out of respect to the deceased lady’s memory.”
John died in 1911, they are both buried in the family grave in the Northern 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
Ngaio Press http://www.ngaiopress.com