Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ann Lawson was born about 1844 in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland, the daughter of Frederick Lawson, a ships master, and Agnes Tullcoh.
Ann arrived in New Zealand about 1872. She married Samuel Busby, a gardener, on 5 May 1874 at Timaru.
They had eight children. When Ann signed the suffrage petition, they were living in Arthur St, Dunedin.
Their first child, a son, died in infancy. In August 1900, two of Ann and Samuel’s daughters died a week apart: Elizabeth was 20 and Isabella was 15. In 1901, their 25-year-old son William was lost at sea while working on the barque Loongana.
Samuel died in 1903 at Arthur St. Ann then moved to Cannongate where she died on 15 April 1916. They are buried in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
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.
Community contributions