Biography contributed by Wendy Napier-Walker
Mrs Cottee was born Sophia Gladwell on 21 May 1846 to Christopher Hart Gladwell and his wife Harriet Gladwell nee Brown.
At the time of the 1871 census Sophia was living at home with her parents and siblings at 14 Washington street, Mile End Old Town, London. Her occupation is given as Dressmaker.
On 1 October 1871 Sophia married William Cottee, Labourer at St Thomas Church Stepney, London, England.
It is not known when the Cottee family arrived in New Zealand.
'In 1879, after the bush fire, Mr W M Cottee arrived permanently in Waimate, and being experienced in brick making, set about his craft fulfilling an ever increasing need for permanent materials by making bricks. He found the deep deposits of clay to the east of the township eminently suited for his purpose. His first bricks were fired by the “Open Joey” method, that is by stacking the raw bricks in rows, placing firewood between the rows and then setting them alight. When he had a surplus of those burnt bricks, he built a kiln in which the bricks were given the normal treatment of the time. Mr Cottee during his lifetime had several kilns on at least two sides of the south side of the Timaru Road, the last one being on a block adjoining Pembroke and Montgomery streets'.
The 1880-81 electoral roll records William Cottee living in Waimate, occupation bricklayer.
When Sophia signed the 1892 Women’s Suffrage Petition Sheet 262, she was living in Timaru Road, Waimate, and also there when she signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage petition.
Sophia died on 16 February 1895, age 45 in Waimate and is buried in the Waimate Old cemetery, Methodist section, Row 24, Plot 000432.
William remarried in 1898 to Annie Avery in Lyttelton.
William Cottee died on 16 October 1937 age 86, Waimate Old cemetery, Methodist section, Row 16, Plot 000171.
Sources
Ancestry New Zealand Electoral Rolls
NZ DIA Death Index 1895/2142 Sophia Cottee
NZ DIA Marriage Index 1898 William Cottee/Annie Avery
NZ DIA Death Index 1937/17306 William Cottee
Waimate Borough Council cemetery online database
Greenwood, William. Te Waimatemate – History of Waimate County and Borough, page 50