See also Caversham research databases
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann Alliban was born in Marylebone, London in 1844 – the daughter of Henry Brandis Alliban, a baker, and Margaret Jones.
Mary’s father died in 1849 in Warwickshire and her mother then became a shopkeeper.
Mary married carpenter Alfred Westwood on 3 May 1862 in Shoreditch, London.
They had seven children, two who died in infancy, before the family emigrated to Otago in 1874 on the Sussex.
They settled in Dunedin where they had a further six children, two of these children also died in infancy.
In 1888 the family moved to Victoria, Australia where their last child was born – Margaret died aged two months.
Alfred died in 1889 – he is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.
Mary returned to Dunedin in 1892 and when she signed the suffrage petition she was living in Alexandra St, Caversham.
She died on 29 December 1922 at her daughter’s home in Mosgiel – she is buried in the East Taieri Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
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