suffrage_petition
Surname: 
Wakelin
Given names: 
Naomi
Given address: 
Broughton St
Sheet No: 94
Town/Suburb: 
South Dunedin
City/Region: 
Dunedin
Notes: 

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Naomi Eldridge was born in 1842 in Middlesex, England – the daughter of James Eldridge, an agricultural labourer, and Margaret Hayes.

She married William James Wakelin, a carpenter and painter, in 1862. The following year they emigrated to Canterbury, New Zealand on the Huntress.

Naomi & William had 10 children. The family moved from Lyttleton to Dunedin about 1875 and they settled in Kaikorai.

In July 1884 William went missing from his home, he had had a stroke 18 months before and had 'been despondent of late'.

His body was found in Flagstaff Creek a few days later, the inquest found that he had 'committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity'.

Their youngest child was only a year old at the time of William’s death.

When Naomi signed the suffrage petition she was living in Broughton St, Kaikorai with her children.

She died at her home on 9 November 1905 'after a long and painful illness, borne with Christian fortitude' and is buried with William in the family grave 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

Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk

GRO England https://www.gro.gov.uk

Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz

PapersPast https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

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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