Biographical information provided by Stefanie Lash, Archives New Zealand, for the He Tohu exhibition:
Patience Laytham (nee Wilks) was born in the village of Hook Norton, Oxfordshire (England) in 1841. She married her first husband Samuel Prue in 1859, and they had eleven children, of whom eight survived childhood. They emigrated to New Zealand in 1874, settling in Waimate.
In 1877 Samuel drowned in a creek near their home in Waimate following a period of depression due to an injury that put him off work. Charitable people in Waimate put together a subscription fund and a significant amount of food and firewood for Patience and her eight children.
In 1878 Patience married John Laytham, a carpenter. They had three children, but one of their daughters, Isabella, died when she was a baby.
Patience died in 1909 aged 68.
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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