Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ruth Lewis was born about 1824 in Hampshire, England – the daughter of James Lewis, a bricklayer, and Elizabeth.
Ruth had a son in 1846 while she was working in Dorset.
She married George Hewitt on 14 September 1853 in Southampton, Hampshire and had two children.
What happened to George is unclear but Ruth re-married on 18 September 1856 as a widow. She married Thomas Henry Ufton, a ship’s steward, in Bombay, India and they had a son the following year.
Thomas died in 1866 in Bombay and nine months later Ruth married John Noble Wingfield, a plumber and widower with three children, in Bombay.
Sometime after this the family came to New Zealand and settled in Dunedin.
John died at Port Chalmers in 1878 and when Ruth signed the suffrage petition she was living in Duncan St, Dunedin.
She died at her son’s home on 24 December 1899 and is buried with John in the Port Chalmers Cemetery.
Sources
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
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