Maker: Melissa Anderson

Panel number: 222

Petition sheet number: 265 and 268

Person honouring: M. A. Anderson

Relationship to makers: Unknown

Mary Ann Allfrey migrated to Canterbury from Sussex with her father, George Allfrey, stepmother Arabella, and her young brother Alfred on the Charlotte Jane in 1850.

She was employed on the ship as a nursemaid for the family of Dr A. C. Barker and his wife Emma. 

In April 1857 Mary Ann married James Anderson, a blacksmith, at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Christchurch. James had emigrated from Musselburgh, Scotland.

James set up his smithy in Kaiapoi, first on the North Road and then at 8 Charles Street. Mary Ann and James had four boys and three girls.

Mary Ann signed the suffrage petition in Kaiapoi, then also enrolled to vote in the following elections.She was a keen member of the Canterbury Early Settlers’ Association and was involved with the women’s suffrage movement.

Mary Ann was likely buried at Kaiapoi cemetery in 1920, alongside James (who died in 1883).

Panel materials: Unknown