Notes provided by Helen Edwards, who has carried out extensive research on the women who signed Sheet 156, including mapping where they lived. Download pdf of this research here.
Elizabeth Ann Birrell, nee Aitchison [E. A. Birrell, Roslyn] (No. 38)
Land description: Part allotments 4, 5, 6 of part section 8 Block 5, Township of Roslyn. 44B High Street [1911]; Hawk Lane; now 146 Highgate. Age in 1893: 39 years.
Elizabeth Ann Aitchison was born in Capetown, and emigrated to New Zealand about 1858. She married John Birrell in Dunedin in 1877, and gave birth to two girls and three boys between 1878 and 1889. John was born in Scotland about 1854 and emigrated to New Zealand about 1876. He was a baker, carter and van driver, and was highly placed in the local Star of Freedom Lodge. Elizabeth Aitchison had bought land in Roslyn in 1876 before her marriage, and John added to this in 1880. The vendor, William Young Spiers, was married to Elizabeth’s sister. The couple remained there till their deaths, Elizabeth in 1923, aged 69, and John in 1927, aged 73 years. They are buried in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.
