Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Mary Gray was born in 1839 in Pickering, Yorkshire – the daughter of John Gray, a clog and patten maker, and Ann Walker.
She married William Jowsey, a butcher, on September 14th 1863 in York. They had 9 children, one who died in infancy, before the family emigrated to New Zealand in 1879 on the Otaki. They had 2 further children before they returned to England for a time.
Mary, once again, sailed for New Zealand with the younger children in 1892 on the Tainui – William had presumably gone before to set up home for the family.
They settled in Dunedin, and when Mary signed the suffrage petition they were living in Castle Street and she was working as a dressmaker.
William died in the Dunedin Hospital in 1905 and Mary died at Timaru on August 29th 1925. They are buried together in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
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