This is Christina Alexander (Mrs John Brown) Park. She was mother-in-law to Margaret Dunbar Marshall Park, who also signed.
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Christina Alexander was born about 1822 in Peebleshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Alexander, a farmer.
She married John Brown Park, a schoolteacher, on 1 June 1845 in Lanarkshire and they had four children.
In 1856 the family sailed for Tasmania having been appointed as master and mistress at the Tasmanian State School.
They had a further five children in Tasmania before they, once again set sail, this time for Otago about 1863.
John opened a school in Walker St, Dunedin in a building that was being used as St Andrew’s Church.
Christina joined the church 'and for many years, whilst her strength held, she took an active part in the work and various societies of the church.'
When the school moved to William St, widely known as Park’s School, the family lived in the school house in Alva St, and Christina worked as a school mistress until family pressures caused her to resign.
John died of influenza in 1891 and Christina died at her daughter’s home in Dunedin on 18 August 1906, she is buried with John in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery.
Her obituary said she 'was a woman of high ideals and abounding optimism, and was never known to be cast down throughout her whole life.'
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
Libraries Tasmania https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au
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