Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Susanna/Susan Hocking was born about 1820 in Marazion, Cornwall – the daughter of Samuel Hocking, an agricultural labourer, and Charity Roskelly.
She married Augustus Thomas, a blacksmith, on 18 September 1852 in Marazion and the following year they emigrated to Victoria, Australia on the Stebonheath.
They had four sons in Victoria, two who died in infancy, before the family came to Otago in the early 1860s.
They settled at Glenore where Susanna signed the suffrage petition.
She died at her home on 3 August 1895 and Augustus died in the Dunedin Hospital in 1912, they are buried in the Glenore Cemetery.
Susanna’s obituary said she 'was a quiet and retiring sort of woman, and had made many friends during her residence in the district, by whom she will be greatly missed.'
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Free BDM https://www.freebmd.org.uk
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
BDM Victoria https://online.justice.vic.gov.au
Public Record Office Victoria https://prov.vic.gov.au
Cornwall OPC https://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/
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