Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Rebecca Sandercock was born in 1843 in Cornwall, England – the daughter of John Sandercock, an agricultural labourer, and Ann Couch.
Rebecca emigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1858 on the Joseph Fletcher and they settled in Auckland where her father died the following year.
Rebecca married William Burns, a soldier, in 1862 – they lived in Auckland and had two children who both died in infancy.
The family moved back to England where three more children were born and one more child died in infancy.
The 1871 census finds the family living in the Rochford Artillery Barracks in Essex where William was a gunner in the Royal Artillery.
They lived for a time in Ireland where their daughter Charlotte Jane was born in Cork in 1873.
In 1874 the family returned to New Zealand on the Tweed – Charlotte Jane died on the voyage.
The family settled at Teaneraki in North Otago where William worked as a labourer and where their last five children were born.
William died in 1884 shortly after the birth of their last child.
When Rebecca signed the suffrage petition she was living in Enfield in North Otago.
She died in Oamaru on 9 June 1931 and she is buried with her daughter in the Old Oamaru Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
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
Waitaki District Council https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/our-services