Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Butt Boyt was born in 1847 in Dorset – the daughter of Henry Boyt, an agricultural labourer, and Eliza Butt.
She married excavator, Edward Harrison in 1869 and they had three children before they emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1870s.
They had a further three children in New Zealand, one who died in early childhood, before Edward died in 1885 in Greymouth. He is buried in the Karoro Cemetery.
Sarah was still in Greymouth when she signed the suffrage petition. She remarried in 1906 to George Blair, a sawmiller. George died in 1913 – he is buried in the Karoro Cemetery.
Sarah moved to Auckland to live near her daughter, she died there on 23 September 1929 and is buried in the Hillsborough Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/