Mrs C. Everson

Surname:

Everson

Given names:

Mrs C.

Given address:

Castle Street

Sheet No: 30

Town/Suburb:

Central Dunedin

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Originally transcribed as Mrs C Emerson

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Ellen Jane Fisher OBren/O’Brien was born on 14 January 1870 in St Helier, Jersey – the daughter of William Fisher OBren, a shoemaker, and Jane Ellen Langelier.

She emigrated to Otago with her family in 1874 on the Carnatic and they settled in Dunedin where her parents died in 1885 and 1886.

Ellen married Charles Samson Everson, a seaman from Norway, in 1889. They had 11 children, three who died in infancy and when Ellen signed the suffrage petition they were living in Castle Street.

In the 1900s the family moved to the North Island. In 1914 Ellen took Charles to court claiming for separation and maintenance - she 'had 16 children, of whom eight were living...she had taken a prohibition order out against her husband. He was out of work owing to the strike...She had stood it for many years, but would not live with her husband again'.

The court granted her £2 10s per week.

Charles died in Auckland in 1932 and Ellen died on 23 February 1960, they are buried together in the Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland.