Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Catherine Sinclair was born on 22 September 1838 in Halkirk in Caithness, Scotland – the daughter of Alexander Sinclair, an agricultural labourer, and Christian McDonald.
She married William Simpson, a police constable, in Edinburgh on 4 June 1861 and soon after they emigrated to New Zealand.
They settled in Dunedin and they had eight children. William was a partner in the coal business of Simpson and Mitchell and when Catherine signed the suffrage petition they were living in Great King Street.
William died at their home in 1895 and sometime after this Catherine moved to live at Otiake in North Otago.
She farmed there until 1919 when a clearing sale was held and the farm was sold.
She died on 28 March 1923 in Oamaru and is buried with William in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.