Harriet Mountain

Biographical information provided by Hannah Benbow, Alexander Turnbull Library, for the He Tohu exhibition:

Harriet Mountain (nee Paul) was born in 1830 in England and died in Wellington in 1915. She came to New Zealand on the Wiltshire as an assisted migrant along with her two daughters, Emma Sarah and Constance, in 1877. Her husband, Henry Mountain, had died in 1865 in Grove Hall Lunatic Asylum, when their children were about seven and four. Harriet signed the petition alongside her daughter Emma Sarah and the two appear to have lived together until Harriet’s death. On the electoral roll, Harriet’s occupation is given as dressmaker and, later, widow. Her daughters were also both dressmakers.