Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Sarah Kingon was born in Ireland about 1853 – the daughter of Samuel Kingon, coal miner, and Mary Lowrie.
Shortly after Sarah’s birth her family moved to Scotland and settled in Lanarkshire.
She married John Spence, also a miner, in Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire on 24 October 1871.
Shortly after their marriage Sarah and John emigrated to Otago, they had four children and lived in the Saddle Hill/Fairfield area near Dunedin.
John died at Dunedin Hospital in 1888.
Sarah re-married in 1892 to James Theophile Shannon, a carter and a widower with six children.
When Sarah signed the suffrage petition the family were living in the Hawthorndale subdivision of Roslyn, Dunedin.
Sarah and James had three children, one who died in infancy.
James died in 1930 and Sarah died at her son’s home in Kaikorai on 7 September 1937.
They are buried together in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.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