Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley
Ellen was born about 1844 in England.
She married George Waterhouse - they came to New Zealand in the early 1860s and settled in Dunedin where they had three children.
In 1870 Ellen was brought before the court charged with manslaughter when a woman she was looking after died in childbirth – she was discharged after evidence was given in her defence. George died in 1872 and Ellen remarried on 22 December 1873 in Dunedin to publican Edward Lyons.
They had nine children together, two who died in infancy, and when Ellen signed the suffrage petition they were living in Grosvenor St, Kensington.
Ellen died at her home on 20 August 1919 and Edward died later that year on 14 December – they are buried together in the Southern Cemetery.
Sources
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
DCC Cemetery Records http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries-search
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Presbyterian Research Centre https://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/
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