suffrage_petition
Surname: 
McKinnon
Given names: 
Agnes
Given address: 
Harrison Street Wanganui
Sheet No: 470
Town/Suburb: 
Whanganui
City/Region: 
Whanganui
Notes: 

Biography and image contributed by Kirsty Hosie (great great grandaughter) and Margaret Campion (great granddaughter).

Agnes McKinnon

Agnes Wood, born in 1841 near Edinburgh, Scotland to parents WILLIAM WOOD and JANE FLINT. She was five when her father died. Her mother re-married David Morrison and Agnes had 5 half brothers and sisters. She was 15/16 when her family sailed to New Zealand on the Heroes of Alma in 1856 and they walked up the coast to Wanganui before eventually taking up land in Rangitikei. Agnes lived with families as a housemaid and looked after children.

In 1862, age 22 she married English born WILLIAM ASHWORTH in the Rutland Stockade, Wanganui. He was a sergeant in the 57th Regiment of Foot. The regiment had fought in Crimea and India before coming to NZ and being garrisoned at Wanganui from March 1861 to February 1867. Agnes was widowed in 1865 with two small sons when William was killed during the New Zealand Wars in Taranaki.

In 1886, Agnes Ashworth re-married HUGH McKINNON from the Isle of Skye in Wanganui. The couple had ten children including a set of twins and two children died in infancy. The McKinnon marriage must not have been an easy one as it was said that Hugh was a hard man. Hugh worked with boats and labouring and money was always in short supply. He disappeared from the family early 1900s and is believed to have died in Australia before 1918.  Agnes died in Wanganui in 1918, aged 77 and is buried at the Aramoho Cemetery, Wanganui. Agnes faced many difficulties and hardships throughout her life. Her children were everything to her. They returned her love and supported her financially and in many other ways.  The Ashworth boys and the McKinnon family were always close. She was 52 and living in Harrison Street, Wanganui when she signed sheet number the NZ Suffrage Petition in 1893.

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

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Anonymous

Posted: 18 Sep 2021

Agnes married Hugh McKINNON 1866 not 1888 See NZ BDM's