Originally transcribed as F Ayers
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Mary Ann Fox was born about 1860.
On 2 June 1874, in Dunedin, she married 58-year-old Thomas Ayers, a cabinetmaker and widower with six children.
Mary and Thomas had a further seven children and when Mary signed the suffrage petition they were living in Percy Avenue, Kensington.
Thomas died in 1897 – he is buried with his first wife in the Southern Cemetery.
The following year Mary’s three youngest children were brought before the court as their mother was 'in indigent circumstances, and unable to support them.' She 'was a widow, and had no means or property. She lived in Stafford street, and occasionally got work. During her temporary absence from home the children were allowed to run about as they liked, there being no one to look after them.' The children were committed to the Industrial School.
Mary remarried in 1899 to Robert Farmer, a widower with nine children.
Robert died in 1909 – he is buried in the Northern Cemetery.
Mary died at her home on 5 October 1912, aged 52 – she is buried with one of her sons in the Northern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
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