Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Johanna Elizabeth Barrett was born in England.
She married William Rudman in 1852 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Johanna next appeared in Sydney, Australia where, on 9 April 1860 she married Captain Robert Edwin Robinson of the brig Amherst.
Johanna was described as the relict (widow) of the late Mr W Rudman, formerly of Gipps Land, Victoria.
When Johanna signed the suffrage petition she was living in Maryhill Tce, Mornington, Dunedin, and signed as Mrs John English.
John English, a chemist, had lived in Maryhill Tce since the 1880s and had served as Mayor of Mornington. He died in 1891 in Waipawa in the Hawkes Bay District shortly after moving there. John’s will left his property to Johanna Elizabeth Rudman nee Barrett, widow of William Frederick Rudman.
Johanna signed an affidavit that she had married John English in 1874 in Sydney and that William Rudman had died in Sydney in 1863. None of these events have been registered in the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages records.
Johanna disappears from the records after 1893, her place and date of death are unknown.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
Public Record Office Victoria https://prov.vic.gov.au