Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Betsy Ann Pourie Myles was born on 10 June 1864 in Alyth, Perthshire, Scotland, the daughter of John Myles, a ploughman, and Isabella Low Paton.
Betsy married David Sherriff, a civil engineer, in Victoria, Australia in 1885. They had two children in Victoria before emigrating to New Zealand.
They travelled from Melbourne to Bluff on the Tarawera, arriving in September 1891.
They had one further child after their arrival in New Zealand.
When she signed the suffrage petition, Betsy and her family were living in Cumberland St, Dunedin.
They later moved to Heriot Row where David died in 1918. Betsy died on 11 August 1925. They are buried together in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
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