Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Simpson was born about 1828 in Scotland. She married Thomas Fairbairn, a bootmaker, in Scotland in 1856. They had two children before they boarded the Jura in 1858 bound for Otago. A further five children were born in Otago, one of whom died in infancy. Their daughters Elizabeth and Jane also signed the suffrage petition.
Elizabeth died on 24 January 1908 at her home in Andersons Bay.
Her obituary says that she was one of the oldest residents of the Peninsula:
She was greatly respected by all who knew her, and until her death was the oldest member of the Andersons Bay Presbyterian Church, at which she was a regular attender.
Thomas died in 1910 and they are buried together in the family grave in the Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
