Maker: Karen Major

Panel number: 320

Petition sheet number: 378

Person honouring: Elizabeth Barker

Relationship to maker: Same region as my great-grandmother

Elizabeth was likely born Elizabeth Cooper in Yorkshire, England in 1831. Along with George Barker, the man she married in York in 1864, she was living in New Zealand by about 1868. The couple settled in Warkworth, north of Auckland, where George was farming on 80 acres of freehold land. They had no children.

Elizabeth signed both the 1892 and 1893 suffrage petitions, but seemingly with different handwriting. This puzzle was clarified by her will. Her witnesses noted they had read Elizabeth’s will back to her because she was illiterate; she signed with ‘her mark’, an X.

Both Elizabeth and George were still in the Mahurangi area at 1896 election time, but George died soon after in 1898. The New Zealand Herald reported he was like other settlers, who “devote their life’s energy in subduing the wilderness into a more civilised condition.” No doubt Elizabeth did likewise.

Elizabeth was George’s sole beneficiary; she benefitted financially to the tune of about £400. She was still at Warkworth in 1900 but may have moved to Auckland’s  Mt Roskill by 1905.

When Elizabeth died in 1907 she left £250 to her husband’s nephew back in York and the remainder of her estate to Jane Bailey, her executor’s wife, “including all of my household effects for her absolute use”.

Panel materials: White cotton, wool felt, and embroidery thread.