Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Manning Honywill was born on 30 September 1834 in Wiltshire, England – the daughter of William Honywill, a woollen draper, and Sarah Manning.
She married Edward Drury Butts, a merchant’s clerk, in London in 1858.
Shortly after their marriage they emigrated to New Zealand and Edward became the Chief Postmaster for Southland about 1860.
They had nine children and after moving from Invercargill to Wellington, were living in Dunedin when Sarah signed the suffrage petition.
Edward retired from his role as Chief Postmaster in Dunedin in 1892 and the family went to live in Auckland about 1895.
In 1906 Sarah and Edward left for a trip to England to visit relatives after a period of 48 years absence.
Edward died in Devonport, Auckland in 1910 and Sarah died on 4 September 1914, they are buried together in the Purewa Cemetery, Auckland
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Purewa Cemetery https://www.purewa.co.nz
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