Sarah Booth

Sarah's daughter-in-law, Mary, signed sheet 259 of the suffrage petition.

Biography contributed by Brian McGlinchy

Sarah Booth (née Heathet) was born in Great Busby, Yorkshire on 29 April 1836.

Sarah was the second wife of Thomas Booth, who was born in Monkwearmouth, Durham, England in 1815, where he was a blacksmith. Thomas had previously married Eliza Shortcliffe who died in 1857 leaving Thomas with five young children. He then married Sarah on 23 December 1858. The 1851 census shows that she was living in nearby Sunderland and employed as a domestic servant. Thomas may well have then employed her, as a housekeeper, and which is so often the case, they married about a year after Eliza died.

Then on 29 August 1859 Thomas and Sarah with four young children (one, Eliza, having died) set off for New Zealand in the Regina. They settled in Woodend, north of Christchurch, where Thomas set up both a blacksmith and grocery store, which is believed to be the first shop in Woodend. While at Woodend they had four children. 

Thomas died on 12 October 1874, and Sarah died on 5 November 1894 having lived for a further 20 years, still in Woodend. Her death notice had no references to her husband or family. It included the comment 'After a lingering and painful illness'.

When Thomas died there were no references to his wife or family and there was no obituary in any of the local papers.

Whether or not there was a breakdown of the marriage, it is clear that Sarah had strong affection to her step-children. On the front page of a bible that Sarah gave to her step-daughter Alice on her 25th birthday, some seven months after Thomas had died, she inscribed 'April 24^th 1875 Presented to Alice Booth on the occasion of her 25^th birthday by her loving mother, Sarah Booth.'