Makers: Gwenda Pearson, Pushpa Narayan, Carole Devine, Kathryn Tsikanovski, Fiona Sharp, Jocelyn Todd, and Anne Barr [from Nancy’s Tatting Group, Wellington]

Panel number: 205

Petition sheet number: 247

Person honouring: J. H. Hall

Relationship to makers: Great-grandmother of a member

Jeannie Hall was: a pioneer multi-tasker, insurance saleswoman, canvasser for signatures for the suffrage petition, mother to at least four daughters and one son, financial supporter of a family, and engaged in community activities.

Jeannie Harkness Johnstone was born in Islay, Scotland, in October 1849.

With her widowed mother and sisters, Jeannie sailed for Australia in 1864. However, scarlet fever meant the ship was diverted to New Zealand, where the family felt Dunedin was so much like Scotland that they would remain. 

After Jeannie’s mother remarried, they arranged to depart by boat for the West Coast gold rush. Realising something was left behind, her mother instructed them all to remain on the wharf. The ship sailed without them! Eventually arriving in Hokitika they ran an hotel then took up farming. 

In August 1874 in Greymouth, Jeannie married John William Hall, a widower with children. They leased the Post Office Hotel but Jeannie didn’t like the children living in an hotel so they built a house. In 1879, the couple had a child, Robert.

John was an insurance agent until his death in 1893.

After this, Jeannie became the first woman in New Zealand to sell insurance, working for the AMP Insurance Company. She travelled across rivers in cages, on barges, horseback, buggy, or on foot when the railway ran out. 

In 1893, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and other women’s organisations, were seeking support for women’s suffrage. Jeannie canvassed for signatures, collecting a long list for the 1893 petition – there are 229 names from Greymouth.

Jeannie’s occupation was insurance canvasser on the 1893 and 1896 electoral rolls. By 1925 she was living in Masterton, where she died aged 79 in April 1928 and was buried at the local cemetery.

Jeannie left a legacy of strength through adversity, and improvements in the lot of New Zealand women.

Panel materials: Background to the panel came from Vinnies Re-Sew. All lacework was hand-tatted specifically for this project, using cottons / threads group members had in their work boxes.