Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Ann Essex was born in 1860 in Gloucestershire, England – the daughter of Henry Essex, a farm labourer, and Elizabeth Farr.
She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1880 on the Piako where she married Alexander Ayson, a farmer, in 1883.
They had two children and when Sarah signed the suffrage petition in Gore they were farming in the Waikaka Valley nearby.
They later went to live at Katikati in the Bay of Plenty where Alexander died in 1921 – he is buried in the Katikati Cemetery.
Sarah died on 10 January 1944 at her daughter’s home in Hamilton – she is buried in the Hamilton East Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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