Originally transcribed as Mrs Spragne
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Elizabeth Newton was born in 1844 in Millom, Cumberlandshire, England – the daughter of Walker Newton, a grocer and shoemaker, and Hannah Hodgson.
She married Francis Sprague, an ironstone miner, in Millom on 6 November 1870.
They had three children, two who died in infancy, before they emigrated to Otago in about 1874.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further six children, one of these children also died in infancy.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition they were living in Sunnydale, North East Valley.
Elizabeth died at her home on 20 May 1921 and Francis died later that year in July – they are buried in the family grave in the Northern Cemetery.
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
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