Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Patience Newcombe was born in 1834 in Ireland.
She married Henry Purvis in 1851 in San Francisco and they had two sons before moving to Victoria, Australia where they had a further four children.
Henry was gold miner and in 1861 he sailed to Otago in search of gold at Gabriels Gully.
He returned to Victoria for his family who, in 1863, set sail again, this time for Otago.
They settled on the Taieri Plain, south of Dunedin and had their last four children, two children died in infancy at this time.
Henry worked as a builder and when Patience signed the suffrage petition she did so in Mosgiel.
She died at her home Myrtle Bank at Mosgiel on 17 October 1897.
Her obituary said she “appears to have been greatly respected among the community with which she resided”.
Henry died in 1912 – they are buried together in the East Taieri 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
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au