Biography contributed by her great granddaughter-in-law, Helen M. Laney
Sarah Ann Laney, née Piercy, was born in Sherfield, nr Basingstoke, Hampshire, England in the September quarter of 1845. Her parents were Daniel Piercy, a bootmaker, and Ann Maria, née Goodwin. She had four sisters, two of whom also came to New Zealand.
On the 31 January 1875 Sarah Ann married Alfred Laney in the London Street Chapel, in the District of Reading, in the County of Berkshire. They were married according to the rites and ceremonies of the Primitive Methodists. Sarah Ann’s father and her sister, Maria, were witnesses.
On the 4 September 1875, Sarah Ann and Alfred Laney left Gravesend, England, on the ship Waimate bound for New Zealand. Alfred was 30, a labourer, and Sarah Ann was 29. They arrived at Port Chalmers on the 3 December 1875.
Their first child, Piercy Ann Mary Maria, was born in Mornington, Dunedin, in 1877. She died in 1942. Their other children were all born in Oamaru: Miriam Ellen (Minnie) (1879-1918), Alfred Edward (1881-1945), William John (1883-1965) and Herbert James (1890-1891).
When the Ardgowan Estate, on the western outskirts of Oamaru, was acquired by the Government, sections were made available for a ballot. This took place in the Theatre Royal (later the North Otago Farmers’ Co-op, Woolworths Supermarket and now Countdown Supermarket) on the NW corner of Thames and Coquet Streets, on the 14 & 15 May 1896. There were eight thousand applications made by 1,640 people for sixty-four sections. Neither Alfred nor Sarah were successful in the initial balloting. However, there was a re-ballot of some of the sections, as some lucky people had acquired more than one. Sarah was lucky enough to win the re-ballot for Section 126. There were 108 applicants for this section.
The family were able to take possession of this section in June 1896. Here they grew wheat and kept some cows.
Sarah Ann died on the 26 September 1899 at Ardgowan, near Oamaru. She is buried in Oamaru Old Cemetery.
References
Birth, marriage & death certificates
Passenger list for Waimate from Otago Early Settlers Museum
Waitaki District Council Cemetery records
Oamaru Mail & North Otago Times
Copy of Suffrage Petition Page from National Archives on the 3 December 1993.