Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Rankeillor Kilgour Stewart was born on 11 January 1859 in Burntisland, Fifeshire, Scotland – the daughter of James Stewart, a Master Mariner and Mary Ann Hughan.
Rankeillor came to Otago with her parents on the Dunedin in 1859 - her father was captain of the ship.
Rankeillor attended South Dunedin School and, in 1879, she was appointed fourth assistant at William St School. She continued in this job until her marriage in 1883 to John Inglis Wright, a stationer.
Shortly after her marriage Rankeillor and John took a court case for libel against a friend of her family. He had written a defamatory letter to her to try and dissuade her from marrying John. This was apparently on behalf of her mother who did not approve of the match. Rankeillor’s parents apparently came to accept John as he was named as an executor in her father’s will in 1911.
They had six children and lived, at first, in Cargill Rd, South Dunedin, then later moved to Mornington.
John died in 1946 and Rankeillor died on 24 December 1949. They are buried in a family grave in the Andersons Bay 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
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions