Biography contributed by Wendy Napier-Walker
Mrs George Sullivan was born Mary Green, on 17 July 1853, at Maddern, Church town, Cornwall, England, the daughter of Richard Green and Elizabeth Hosking.
On 22 May 1875 Mary Green married George Sullivan at St Hilary, Cornwall, England.
Shortly after their marriage they departed London for New Zealand on the ship Blairgowrie, arriving Lyttelton on 22 August 1875. George was aged 21 years and a Farm Labourer and Mary was aged 24 years.
The following year they moved from Timaru to Waimate, South Canterbury.
Mary and George had eight sons and two daughters.
Around 1904 George abandoned Mary and the children in Waimate to live in Gore with Mary Jane Staples, his common law wife.
George pre-deceased Mary. He was killed in a motor vehicle accident on 30 March 1920 and is buried in the Wyndham cemetery, Southland.
Mary spent the last years of her life in Kaikoura, living with her daughter Caroline.
Mary died on 18 April 1927 in Kaikoura, at the home of her son-in-law, Samuel Pluck. She is buried in the Waimate Old Cemetery, Row 4, Plot 000358.
In Mary’s obituary she is described as '...a very strong and warm-hearted woman doing a good turn and giving a word of advice to all, and she was loved and respected by all who knew her. She lived a very strenuous life in the early days ….”
Sources
Free UK BMD Marriages 1875 June Quarter 5c 374 George Sullivan/Mary Green
Lyttelton Times 24 August 1875, Pg2 – Arrival of the Blair Gowrie
South Canterbury Museum - https://museum.timaru.govt.nz/explore/scroll/profile?id=2304
Waimate Daily Advertiser 23 April 1927, Pg 9
Kaikoura Star 19 April 1928, Pg 2
Ancestry Family Trees
Waimate District Council online cemetery database
Southland District Council online cemetery database