suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Bagshaw
Given names: 
Eliza
Given address: 
Mornington
Sheet No: 167
Town/Suburb: 
Mornington
City/Region: 
Dunedin
Notes: 

Biographical information provided by Lillie Le Dorré for the He Tohu exhibition:

Eliza Jessieman Bagshaw was born on 5 March 1864 to parents Robert Hunter Jessieman Bagshaw and Elisabeth Bagshaw (nee Hunter), in Arbroath, Angus (Scotland). She immigrated to New Zealand in 1878 aged 14, accompanied by Susan Bagshaw, her sister, aged 25. Both women were listed as Domestic Servants.

Eliza worked for many years as a domestic servant for George Hepburn Stewart and his wife Elizabeth Stewart (nee Herbert), who lived in Crookstan, Otago. Following George’s death in 1915, a casualty of the First World War, Eliza inherited the substantial sum of £250 in George’s will, demonstrating the quasi-familial status that some long-term servants attained.

Eliza never married – her probate record declares her a spinster. She died on 11 March 1942, aged 78, and was buried at the Northern Cemetery in Dunedin.

Eliza’s sister Susan signed Sheet 108 of the Petition

Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.

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