Maker: Sharon Cooper

Panel number: 154

Petition Sheet Number: 185

Person honouring: Elizabeth Barr

Relationship to makers: None

Elizabeth was the first child born in New Zealand to Ellen, nee Nixon, and Thomas Seay of Kilmore, County Down, Ireland. They emigrated in 1863 aboard the ‘Akerton’ (according to the Press of 6 July 1911). 

She lived on the family farm at Springfield, Canterbury. Her older siblings, Ellen and Margaret, who had come from Ireland with their parents, died in 1872, as did a brother in 1873, Thomas Robert Seay. Elizabeth attended these schools; Halkett, Christchurch Normal, Kowai Pass Schools and West Christchurch Girls. 

In 1886 she married James Barr from a local family. They started married life on a farm in Annat and raised ten of their eleven children to adulthood. James experienced bankruptcy in the same year Elizabeth signed the suffrage petition and shortly after their daughter, Agnes, died on the 3rd August just before her third birthday. James turned to stock dealing in Islington before later returning to farming to support his growing family. 

Although married as a Presbyterian, Elizabeth and many of her daughters later belonged to the Assembly of God and were devoutly religious. Elizabeth died of cancer in Christchurch in 1933 and is buried in the Linwood cemetery.

Panel materials: Cotton (new), hand made lace.