Maker: Julie Sison

Panel number: 323

Petition sheet number: 381

People honouring: Ann and Margaret Peace

Relationship to maker: Unknown

Ann Cromarty was born in Orkney, Scotland in 1835. Her future husband George Peace was also born there. They married in Orkney in August 1858 before arriving in New Zealand the next year and beginning their family.

Margaret Peace was their first-born child in 1859.

Ann and Margaret Peace were two of the 2,142 women in Auckland who signed the 1893 suffrage petition. Both list Arch Hill as their address and the handwriting appears to be the same. Since 34-year-old Margaret died in July 1893, the month the petition was submitted to Parliament, it’s possible Ann signed for her daughter. Margaret is not on the 1893 electoral roll.

Ann and George had 10 children although not all survived until adulthood. Their children performed well at the Band of Hope Union competitions. This engagement suggests Ann was active in the local temperance movement.

Ann’s youngest child, Bertha, was just nine when George died from heart disease in 1889 – while at work as a carter. The local newspaper reported “He was a hard-working man, and leave [sic] his wife and family, of one son and six daughters fairly provided for … a man of worth and integrity.”

George did not have a will, leaving Ann to apply to administer his estate (valued at under £900), which she succeeded in doing through the Supreme Court. She and her adult children returned to court in 1896 to seek permission to sell part of the land so she could upgrade her home. This was granted.

Ann died in October 1911. She did leave a will, which included direction to pay Bertha £50 “as a slight recognition and recompense for her faithful attendance on me”, and that Bertha be allowed to stay in the Stanley St house until she married.

Ann requested that her home then stay in the family if possible, with proceeds going to all six children “free from control of any husbands with whom they intermarry”.

Panel materials: Unknown.