Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Mary Ann Perry lived in Dunedin with in the 1860s with George Cleaver, a bricklayer.
They do not appear to have married but over the next few years they had at least nine children together.
In 1883 four of Mary’s sons were “brought before the Court as children having no means of subsistence, and whose parent is in indigent circumstances and unable to support them.”
The police said that George “had deserted her and gone to Sydney over twelve months ago”. The boys were committed to the Industrial School.
In 1887 two of Mary’s daughters were also brought before the Court. They were not sent to the Industrial School at that stage, and the Benevolent Institute provided an allowance for their keep. They were eventually sent to the school in 1890.
When Mary signed the suffrage petition she was living with some of her children in Filleul St, Dunedin.
She was still in Filleul St in 1896. After this she disappears from the records and may have either married or changed her name.
Several of the sons settled it the Taihape district.
Sources
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions