Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Susannah Winstanley was born in Lancashire, England, about 1822. She married Thomas Winstanley, a coffee roaster, in 1843 in Manchester, Lancashire. They had no children.
In 1853 they emigrated to Victoria, Australia on the Edmond. They later travelled to Otago in January 1862 on the Lady Bird during the Central Otago gold rush. Susannah and Thomas lived in Clyde where they ran Winstanley’s National Hotel. In 1869 the hotel was sold and they moved to Dunedin where they bought the Scandinavian Hotel in Maclaggan St which they ran until 1872.
In 1873 they travelled to London from Victoria on the Sobraon. They returned on the same ship in December 1876 before coming back to Otago in January 1877 on the Arawata. Thomas died at their home in Lower York Place in 1892 - this is where Susannah was living when she signed the suffrage petition.
Susannah died on 25 February 1901 and is buried with Thomas in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
Public Record Office Victoria https://prov.vic.gov.au