suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Adam
Given names: 
Mrs
Given address: 
Opoho
Sheet No: 144
Town/Suburb: 
North Dunedin
City/Region: 
Dunedin
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Agnes Millar Orr was born about 1850 in Scotland.

She married Thomas Ferguson Adam, a shoemaker and widower with three sons, on 28 June 1871 in Edinburgh.

Thomas had previously lived in New Zealand, arriving in the late 1850s and stayed for about six years.

Agnes and Thomas had a son in 1872 who appears to have died in infancy before they sailed for New Zealand in the early 1870s.

The family settled in Dunedin where they had a further seven children and when Agnes signed the suffrage petition they were living in Opoho.

Thomas died in 1898 – he is buried in the Northern Cemetery.

In Thomas’ will the small estate was mostly left to his eldest sons.

Agnes and the younger children went to court to 'obtain an order of the court requiring the executors to contribute a weekly sum out of the estate' for their support. The case was dismissed. Agnes sued for maintenance again in 1900 but once again the case was dismissed.

Agnes remained in Dunedin until about 1911 when she probably moved to New South Wales where her youngest children were living – four of these children died before 1915.

It is unclear exactly where or when Agnes died.

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

Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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