Maker: Mary Napper

Panel number: 193

Petition Sheet Number: 232

Person honouring: Eliza Goldsmith

Relationship to makers: Sister of my Grandfather

Eliza stated in her Will that any money left to a female ‘is for her sole and separate use’ so she presumably had strong views on women’s rights. 

Ann Eliza Day was born in Deal, Kent, England in 1825 where she was christened on 4 December of that year. She was one of ten children. She married Samuel Goldsmith in Lambeth in 1852. Some sources suggest that Samuel sailed to New Zealand on the ‘Strathallen’ in 1858/1859 and Eliza followed him a year later. They initially settled in Otaio then moved to Waimate. They were active in the Methodist Church and one of Eliza’s Obituaries describes her as ‘a chief lady citizen..’  ‘a member of the WCTU’ ‘prominent in temperance reform’. They appear not to have had any children. Eliza died on 11 July 1913 aged 86 and is buried in Waimate Old Cemetery, Canterbury.

Panel materials: Old cotton sheet from a DSW family home bought it in a garage sale around 29 years ago. I used thread which I purchased at an auction it was in its original box labelled as thread for mending stockings.