Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann Schofield was born about 1842 in Hampshire, England. She married Nathaniel Benfell, a shopman in a china shop, in Farnham, Surrey in 1860.
They had six children before the family emigrated to Otago in 1873 on the Dover Castle. A son was born in 1875 before Nathaniel died in December 1876.
Another son was born the following year, named after his father.
After Nathaniel’s death, the family moved from Roslyn to Great King St, Dunedin where Mary had a greengrocer’s shop. She filed for bankruptcy in 1883 with debts of £105 18s 7d and assets of £25.
When she signed the suffrage petition she was still in Great King St with her family.
She died on 29 January 1914 and is buried in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin with her family.
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
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
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