Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Johnson was born about 1852 in England.
She married Henry Hetherington in 1875 in Northumberland, England and they had two children.
What happened to Henry is unclear – Mary arrived in New Zealand about 1880 with her two children and settled in Dunedin.
Mary had a daughter with Isaac Solomon, a 71-year-old widower, in 1883 and they married in 1885 and had a further five children before Isaac died in 1897.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition she gave her address as King St although the family were living in Kenilworth House, North East Valley.
In 1906 Mary’s home in Opoho, Dunedin was destroyed by fire.
After this she moved to South Dunedin where she died on 26 January 1935 – she is buried with Isaac 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
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