Biography contributed by Robbie Titchener
Phoebe Jenkyns was born in Essex, England in 1819, the daughter of Richard Evander Jenkyns and Indian-born Anna Eliza Piper (the daughter of an English officer in the East India Company).
Between 1850–1859, Phoebe had five children in the UK and, although, their exact fathers are unknown, it is believed that William Mason was one. Phoebe and William married sometime in the 1850s and, after he died in 1868, Phoebe and her four surviving children (including Maude Abbott who also signed the Petition) emigrated to New Zealand on the Hydaspes in 1869. Phoebe served as Matron to the single women during the voyage (reducing the cost of her family's passage).
In the 1880s–1890s, Phoebe's son John worked as a chemist in different areas of NZ and Phoebe worked as his dispensary assistant (later being registered as a chemist herself). It was while they were based in Kaeo, Northland that Phoebe signed the Petition.
She died in Christchurch in 1901.
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