Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann McMurray was born about 1861 in County Kerry, Ireland. She emigrated to New Zealand on the Waitara arriving in Bluff in 1878.
She married Charles Price, a cab proprietor, in 1881 and they had two children.
Charles died in 1885, aged 29, his funeral was 'considering the boisterous nature of the weather, largely attended. About a dozen vehicles and a number of horsemen composed the cortege, which moved out of town to St John’s Cemetery, while the fire bell solemnly tolled.'
Shortly after a 'successful social entertainment was given in the Clifton public hall in aid of the widow of the late Mr Charles Price.'
Mary Ann married Charles King, a champion ploughman, in 1886. They had one child and moved to Tapanui.
Charles died suddenly in 1889 at the age of 27 from typhoid fever leaving 'a widow and three young children, totally unprovided for, but on whose behalf an energetic appeal is being made to the people of the district.' Charles is buried in the Tapanui Cemetery.
The following year Mary married Edward Williamson Gowdy, a bushman. They had six children, one who died in infancy.
In the late 1890s the family moved to Dunedin then to Wellington where Mary died on 15 August 1933.
Edward died in 1948, they were both cremated and their ashed interred together in the Karori Cemetery, Wellington.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Invercargill City Council https://icc.govt.nz
Wellington City Council https://wellington.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