Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Norton was born in 1847 in Nettleham, Lincolnshire – the daughter of Thomas Norton, an agricultural labourer, and Mary Ann Creasy.
She married colliery labourer, Richard Boddy in 1865 and they had four children before the family emigrated to Westland in 1876 on the Howrah.
They settled near Greymouth where Mary signed the suffrage petition and they had a further six children, one who died in infancy.
The family eventually lived at Boddytown, inland from Greymouth.
Richard died at the Greymouth hospital in 1917 and in 1936 Mary went to live with her daughter in Christchurch where she died on 23 July 1937.
She is buried with Richard in the Karoro Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/