Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ellen Jackson was born about 1841 in England.
She emigrated to New Zealand where she married Samuel Wootton, a baker, on 30 March 1863 in Dunedin.
They lived at Wetherstones then at Lawrence where Samuel ran a bakery.
They had 11 children, four of their children died in infancy or early childhood.
In 1872 their five year old son George was badly burned when he fell into a tub of boiling water – he died five days later.
Ellen was active in the church - in 1875 she collected £77 17s towards the purchase of an organ for the local church & she sang in the church choir.
In 1875 they opened the Railway Hotel, near the Lawrence railway terminus. They sold up and moved to Dunedin in 1889 where they opened Wootten’s refreshment rooms at St Clair.
When Ellen signed the suffrage petition they were living in South Dunedin.
Samuel died in 1906 and Ellen at her home on 12 October 1912 – they are buried in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/