Amelia Broadley

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Amelia Henrietta Horne was born in 1850 in Lambeth, Surrey – the daughter of William Horne, a tailor, and Amelia Sprague. (See 62 Amelia Horne)

In 1873 Amelia emigrated to Otago with her family on the Surat.

The Surat hit a rock off the Catlins Coast en route to Port Chalmers at 10pm on New Years Eve 1873.

When the ship started to take on water it was run aground at the mouth of the Catlins River, the passengers were taken off the ship in nothing but their nightclothes.

Also on the Surat was Thomas Broadley - Amelia & Thomas married on 14 September 1874 at St Paul’s Church, Dunedin and they had a daughter.

On 10 March 1876 a notice appeared in the Otago Police Gazette 'a warrant has been issued...for the arrest of Thomas Broadley, charged with deserting his wife and child at Kaikorai, near Dunedin, on the 25^th January last...of intemperate habits. He is supposed to have gone to Timaru.'

Four days later their second daughter was born – Thomas did not return and there is no further sign of him in New Zealand.

Amelia’s eldest daughter Sarah died in 1878, at the age of three and the following year she gave birth to a son, Sydney.

His birth was registered as Sydney Thomson and, in 1880, Amelia asked the court 'that Sydney Thompson should be ordered to contribute to the support of her illegitimate child.'

The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

When Amelia signed the suffrage petition she was living in Prince Edward Rd, St Kilda, Dunedin.

She died on 28 April 1916 and is buried in the Andersons Bay 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

Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk

Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz