Margaret Pellett

Surname:

Pellett

Given names:

Margaret

Given address:

Regent St

Sheet No: 29

Town/Suburb:

South Dunedin

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.

also signed as 147 Margaret Pellett

Margaret Muir was born about 1845 in Scotland.

She came to New Zealand in the mid 1870’s where her daughter Margaret was born in 1875.

She married William James Pellett, a widower with seven children, on 19 August 1878 in Dunedin.

Margaret had a further two children and her daughter Margaret died in 1881.

In 1888 William was charged with “failing to support his three children” – the case was dismissed. In 1890 William was charged with “neglecting to provide for his wife Margaret and his two children” an order was made for 10s a week. The following year he was charged with disobeying the maintenance order and he was jailed for four weeks.

When Margaret signed the suffrage petition she was living in Regent Rd, South Dunedin.

After he left the family William was arrested several times for drunkenness.

Margaret died in the Dunedin Hospital on 2 May 1897 – she is buried with her children in the Southern Cemetery.

William moved to Victoria, Australia where he died in 1908. He “dropped dead as he entered the Fitzroy (Melbourne) Court to answer a charge of vagrancy” – he is buried in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Dandenong.