R. Hale

See also Caversham research databases

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Ruth Hale was born on 10 April 1855 in Lanarkshire, Scotland – the daughter of Joseph Hale, a puddler in an iron works, and Margaret Forester. (See 57 Mrs Joseph Hale)

In 1876 Ruth and her family boarded the Invercargill bound for Otago.

Ruth married bootmaker Roger William McGhee in 1877 and their son was born the following year.

Their marriage did not appear to be a happy one as in April 1878 Roger placed a notice in the paper saying 'I will not be responsible for any debts incurred by Ruth McGhee, better known as Ruth Hale. Any person harbouring her will be prosecuted.'

Ruth’s father replied with a notice saying 'if R W McGhee of Walker street, wishes to know where his wife Mrs McGhee and child are let him call at my house in High street, Caversham.' Roger disappears from the records shortly after and he appears to have left the country.

Ruth signed the suffrage petition in Caversham.

She remarried shortly after on 24 May 1893, at the Knox Church Manse, to Duncan Lennox McFarlane, a widower and a miner and they had a daughter the following year.

Ruth and Duncan celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in 1918.

Duncan died in 1928 and Ruth died on 12  December 1943 – they are buried together in the Southern Cemetery.

Sources 

BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/

DCC Cemetery Recordshttp://www.dunedin.govt.nz/fac ilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search

Family Search https://www.familysearch.org

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

Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz