Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mrs Elizabeth Richards was born in Glasgow, Scotland about 1843.
She appears to have married Donald Murray, a blacksmith and wheelwright, sometime before 1869 and emigrated to New Zealand.
They lived in Temuka in South Canterbury & had at least five children before Donald died in 1875, aged 30. The following year Elizabeth’s three-year-old son also died.
A month after her son’s death, on 29 June 1876, Elizabeth married Thomas Henry Richards, a master mariner. They had two children together and lived in Queenstown.
In July 1889 the family moved to Dunedin, Thomas returned to Queenstown to settle his business planning to return in a fortnight. He then absconded to Tasmania with a young girl he had met in Queenstown.
He was arrested, brought back to Dunedin and charged with wife desertion. Elizabeth 'had not lived happily with' Thomas 'and the cause was women'.
Elizabeth and her children were left without support. The Benelovent Institution helped to maintain the youngest two children.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition, she was living in York Place Dunedin.
She later rented 'Aronui House' in High St – a 19-room house providing 'first-class private board and lodgings'.
She retired from business in 1911 and died on 14 November 1920. She is buried with her daughter in the Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.
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
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