suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Wallis
Given names: 
Eliza K.
Given address: 
Papakura
Sheet No: 10
Town/Suburb: 
Papakura
City/Region: 
Auckland

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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1 comment has been posted about Eliza K. Wallis

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Christine Richardson

Posted: 18 Jul 2019

Elizabeth (Eliza) Kemp Wallis was the unmarried daughter of farmer and preacher Caleb Wallis, and his wife Louisa. Eliza was born in 1860, and lived in Papakura her whole life. On the Electoral Rolls of 1896 and 1900, she was recorded as performing domestic and residential duties in Papakura, and in 1905-1906 and 1911, as a spinster. She passed away in March 1912, aged 52 years, and is buried at Papakura Cemetery.

Despite the Wallis’ being quite a prominent family in the region, there is very little information about Eliza in Papakura Museum’s archival collection. Eliza does, however, feature extensively in newspaper articles over 1896-1897, with titles including ‘A Female Bankrupt’, ‘A Disastrous Gift’ and ‘Victim of the Bank’. Eliza’s father, Caleb Wallis, gifted her 68 shares of the Bank of New Zealand, which was then valued at £1,156 (other sources say £1 15s and 6d). The bank however made a demand for calls of £226 13s which Eliza could not afford to pay, and as a result was declared bankrupt.
Source: https://papakuramuseumblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/papakura-suffragettes/