Maker: Jennie Marsh

Panel number: 102

Petition Sheet Number: 105

Person honouring: Elizabeth Will

Relationship to makers: Great-great-grandmother

Elizabeth Will was born on the 18th January 1851, in Scotland. She was the daughter of Andrew Williamson and Jane nee Benzie. She married John Will on 11 September 1875 at St Nicholas, Mounthooly, Aberdeen. 

Elizabeth was a domestic servant at this time and her husband John was a shoemaker. In September the same year they immigrated to New Zealand on board the ‘Nelson’. They arrived at Port Otago on 26 December 1875. John had several jobs around the Taieri Plains and Waikouaiti before they settled in Dunedin. They had six children; John born 27th Aug 1876, George Williamson born 20 January 1878, Elizabeth Agnes born 12th May 1879, Margaret Jane born 23 August 1881, James Gavin born 3 June 1886, Alexander Benzies born 10 June 1887. James Gavin was my grandfather. Elizabeth died on the 1st February aged 79.

Panel materials: Recycled materials, photographs photocopied onto fabric. Stitching cottons from my sewing box supplies. Old sheet purchased from a St Vincent de Paul shop in Hornby for $2.00. Doily was purchased some time ago from a charity shop. The embroidery in the centre which is hidden by the photograph appears to relate too much earlier times.