Originally transcribed as C J Morton
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Elizabeth Jane Gordon was born about 1855 in Australia – the daughter of Edmund William Gordon, a shoemaker, and Phoebe Davis.
She came to New Zealand and lived with her uncle and aunt Rev Henry and Elizabath Flamank nee Davis in Hyde, Central Otago before her marriage.
Her uncle died in 1888 and her aunt in 1889, later that year she married Mark Morton, a farmer and widower with three children.
In 1892 they were living in Owaka where Mark was declared bankrupt and where Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition. Her sister Mary also signed the petition (See 40 Mary Ann Lucas)
The family later moved to Clinton where Elizabeth died on 29 July 1911. 'The sudden death of one who was so highly respected as' Elizabeth 'was, has cast quite a gloom over the town...Kindly and helpful in her manner, with a quiet, earnest christian character, she for many years conducted a Sabbath School'.
Elizabeth is buried in the Owaka Cemetery.
After Elizabeth’s death Mark moved to Balclutha then to Roxburgh, his date and place of death are unknown.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Family Search https://www.familysearch.org
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Libraries Tasmania https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au
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