Mrs Burton

Mrs Elizabeth Burton is the mother of Fanny Crane nee Burton of whom I have already submitted a biography, both having signed the 1893 Suffrage petition.

Elizabeth Burton, nee Foster was born 1820 at Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, U.K. 

She married Robert Burton while living in Wishbeach and then the family moved to Parkgate, Yorkshire where they brought up four children. Robert was a hairdresser, a shoemaker and later became a grocer and I would say that Elizabeth would have been a hard working mother keeping the family fed and clothed under difficult times with strikes at the steel mills and less than desirable living conditions. 

Her husband died in August 1878 as a result of suicide which would have been traumatic. Later, with three of her married children living in New Zealand and to whom she wrote many letters of which I have been privileged to view and are still in the safe hands of the Burton descendants, she made a courageous decision to follow them. She was now in her late sixties.

The ships which were now steam ships meant a much shorter journey than would have been previously in the sailing ships. 

I have been unable to confirm the actual shipping record of her arrival but know she was here for the signing of the Suffrage Petition in 1893. She lived with her daughter, Fanny Crane and family in Guyton Street, Wanganui and would have been well looked after in her final years. 

She died 1908 aged 88 years and is buried in the Old Wanganui cemetery.

Biography contributed by Lois Herdman, great-great-granddaugther

Sources

• UKBDM 
• NZ electoral rolls
• PapersPast
• Oral family history

Image

Elizabeth Burton nee Foster