Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Kate Joan MacGoun was born in 1844 in Greenwich, England – the daughter of Duncan Malcolm MacGoun, a merchant, and Catherine Steele.
After her birth Kate’s family lived for a short time in Germany, where her father may have died, before moving to Greenock in Renfrewshire.
In the late 1850s the family emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Dunedin.
Kate married Alfred Boot, a surgeon dentist, on December 7th 1864 at the Baptist Chapel, Great King Street. They had 9 children, one who died in infancy.
Alfred died in 1892 in Edinburgh while he was on “a trip to the Home County for the benefit of his health” accompanied by their eldest daughter.
When Kate signed the suffrage petition she was living with her children in Royal Terrace, Dunedin.
She died at her home on July 3rd 1914 and is buried with two of her children in the Northern Cemetery.
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