Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Jane/Jean Philip Masson was born on 23 January 1834 in Fetteresso, Kincardineshire, Scotland – the daughter of John Masson, a farmer, and Margaret.
She married Alexander Greig on 23 August 1867 in Aberdeen.
Alexander was a Presbyterian Minister, as was Jane’s brother David who went to China as a missionary and died when he was swept overboard from his ship in 1866.
On 2 September, about a week after their marriage, the couple boarded the Robert Henderson bound for Port Chalmers where Alexander was one of the first Ministers of the Free Church in Otago.
They had three children and the family lived on the Peninsula and when Jane signed the suffrage petition they were at Sandymount living in the Manse.
Jane died at Portobello on 14 January 1917 and Alexander died in 1938, they are buried in the family grave in the Portobello 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
Additional biographical information provided by Briar Barry for the He Tohu exhibition:
This is Jane Philip Greig. On the petition she lists her address as The Manse, Sandymount. A Manse is a house provided for a minister of certain Christian churches, especially the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Jane was the wife of the Reverend Alexander Greig, a Scot who arrived in Dunedin in 1868 and took up the role of Moderator of the 'Portobello Road Church' at Pukehiki.
The first service at the church was held in on 19 April 1868. Local joiner who built the Church, Walter Riddell wrote in his diary that 'Rev. Grieg presented an elegant figure as he rode his horse around the Parish with coat tails pinned up. If you weren't at the Sunday Service he called next week to see if something was wrong.'
Jane died at Portobello on 14 January 1917 aged 83.
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