Maker: Kate Blakeley

Panel number: 136

Petition Sheet Number: 154

Person honouring: Isabella Downes

Relationship to makers: Distant relative

In 1890, Isabella Livingstone married Thomas Nicol Downes, a carter then later plumber, only after all their eight children were born. 

She was born in Scotland in about 1844 and arrived in New Zealand around 1864. The couple’s first child was born in New Zealand in 1865 and their second in Victoria, Australia in 1868. They returned to New Zealand in 1869 for the birth of their third child. The family settled in Dunedin. 

When she signed the suffrage petition, Isabella was living with her family in Clarendon Street. Isabella died on 8 December 1914 and Thomas died in 1918. They are buried together in the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin.

Panel materials: Cotton (provided by Vinnies Re Sew), acrylic paint, a piece of lace from my grandmothers amazing stash as well as the lace edging from one of her handkerchiefs, embroidery thread, beads.