Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jane Penketh Addison was born in 1844 in Yorkshire, England – the daughter of William Addison, a railway clerk, and Elizabeth Weight.
She married John Edwin Robinson, a warehouseman, on 21 October 1870 at College Chapel, Bradford.
They had one daughter before they emigrated to Otago in 1873 on the Surat. This was an eventful voyage as, on New Years Eve 1873, the ship hit a rock off the Catlins. It began to leak during the night and was eventually beached at what is now called Surat Bay.
All the passengers disembarked safely but their luggage was left on the ship and damaged beyond repair.
The family settled in Dunedin and they had a further two children.
When Jane signed the suffrage petition they were living at Carrisbrook and John was working as a collector.
In the 1910s they went to live in Devonport where they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1920.
John died the following year and Jane died on 22 May 1926 – they are buried together in the O’Neill’s Point Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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