Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Bagley was born in 1844 in Gloucestershire, England — the daughter of Benjamin Bagley, a railway goods agent, and Mary Sarah Whittingham.
The family emigrated to Otago about 1862 and settled in Dunedin.
On 8 December 1864, in Dunedin, Mary married James Palmer, an engineer.
James ran the Otago Foundry then, in the 1880s became proprietor of the Logan Point Quarry, which is still running today.
Mary and James had nine children, two of who died in infancy.
The family lived in Ravensbourne near Dunedin where Mary signed the suffrage petition.
James died in 1914 and Mary died at her home on 29 March 1937, at the age of 93. They are buried together 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
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Victoria University http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d2-d49-d8.html