suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Slater
Given names: 
Matilda
Given address: 
Sydenham
Sheet No: 184
Town/Suburb: 
Sydenham
City/Region: 
Christchurch
Notes: 

Biography and image contributed by Petina Danenberg.

Matilda Slater

Matilda Slater c. 1888

Matilda Emily Slater (nee Toovey) was born on 21 August 1856 in London, England.  Her parents were Mary Ann (nee Brockly) and George Henry Toovey.  Her father George was a clerk working in a Solicitor’s office. 

Matilda married James Golding Slater on 10 October 1877 at the Grafton Road Chapel, Pancras, London.  James was a messenger in an Assurance Office.  Their two daughters Caroline Louisa (born 1878) and Alice Mary Ann (born 1879) were both born in London where the family were living in Healey Street, Kentish Town.  In the 1881 census the family were living in 23 Gillies Street, Kentish Town, London.

The family emigrated to New Zealand on the steam ship Arawa leaving London on 31 December 1885 and arriving in Lyttleton on 24 February 1886.  Their 3rd class tickets on the Arawa cost the sum of £68 which James paid on 11 December 1885.

When Matilda signed the 1893 petition the family were living in the Christchurch suburb of Sydenham.  She is also on the 1893 Electoral Roll living in Harper Street (later Orbell Street), Sydenham. 

Matilda’s daughter Caroline married Arthur Heath in 1906.  Alice married Edmund Ball in 1903.

James died on 14 June 1916 at their home in Harper Street.  Several years after he died Matilda married again on 1 September 1919 to William Buddery Builtitude (a widower).  They lived together at Matilda’s house in Harper Street.  William died on 20 May 1925 leaving Matilda again a widow.   

Matilda lived until the age of 85, dying at her daughter Caroline’s house on 8 June 1943.  She is buried with her first husband James Slater in the Sydenham Cemetery in Christchurch. 

Sources

General Register Office – UK birth certificates, marriage certificate
Ancestry.com – 1881 census
Births, Deaths & Marriages – death certificates
Christchurch City Libraries – Christchurch Street Names
Unpublished family research

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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