Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Elizabeth White McLiskey was born in the 1850’s – the eldest daughter of Edward Kemp McLiskey, a bootmaker, and Agnes Craig Fraser.
She married George Frederick Allen on 27 March 1884 at her home in Invercargill.
They had a child in 1886, who appears to have died in infancy.
When Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition they were living in Gore and George was working as a building contractor and landscape painter. Around this time they adopted a son.
In February 1895 the family moved to Stewart Island where “a syndicate of Gore residents” had bought 170 acres of land in Paterson Inlet.
“A comfortable house will also be built on it”, where George and Elizabeth would live and provide accommodation for the syndicate members. George intended to continue his landscape painting of the Island’s scenery.
On 2 March George and a Mr W A Broadbent who were building the house went to Halfmoon Bay where Elizabeth and their son were staying to take them to see the house.
A sudden gust of wind upset the boat and it overturned. The Allen’s all drowned and only Mr Broadbent survived.
The bodies were never found.
Elizabeth and her family are remembered on the McLiskey grave in the Gore Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
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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