B. Favell

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Bessie Holman was born in 1848 in Lewes, Sussex, England, the daughter of Frederick Holman, an upholsterer and paper hanger, and Frances Payne.

Bessie married Edward Favell, a magisterial clerk, in Lewes in 1872. They had a daughter the following year.

In 1883, Edward pleaded guilty to three charges of embezzling £60 from his employer. He had absconded with a young woman from Brighton and was found on board a steamer, the City of Berlin, at Queenstown having taken passage for America. He was sentenced to four months hard labour on each count to be served consecutively.

Bessie and Edward, with their daughter, emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1880s.

They settled in Dunedin and Edward worked as an inspector at the Benevolent Institution.

When Bessie signed the suffrage petition the family were living in David St, Caversham.

In 1895 Edward was charged with assaulting a female - one of his clients accused him of behaving improperly towards her, the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

In February 1897 Edward was given three months notice from his job.

In April that year Edward was charged with not paying back £15 he had been lent a former client of the Institute and of having an immoral relationship with her. He was found not guilty.

Edward died in 1913 and Bessie died on 24 September 1922. They are buried with their daughter in the Andersons Bay Cemetery.

Sources

DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
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

See also Caversham research databases