Maker: Juliet Broadmore

Panel number: 324

Petition sheet number: 383

Person honouring: M. I. [Mary Isabella] Michael

Relationship to maker: Great-grandmother

Mary Isabella Michael’s descendants say they are proud that their stroppy, determined Irish ancestor signed the 1893 women’s suffrage petition.

Mary Clements was baptised in September 1843 in Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland. Her childhood and character were affected by the 1840s Irish famine, the Cappoquin Young Irish Rebellion of 1849, and the Keane (Cappoquin) Encumbered Estate Sale in 1855. 

Mary arrived in New Zealand in 1875 and married Irish gold miner John Abbott in 1877. They had no children.

In 1880 she left John; in December 1880 a public notice in the Thames Advertiser stated ‘This is to intimate that I will not be responsible for any DEBTS contracted by my wife, Mary Abbott, she having left me without sufficient cause’. Was Mary a wicked wife or a courageous escapee from domestic violence? 

In Waihi Mary met Irish miner Robert Michael from Bovedy in County Antrim. They never married, possibly because Mr Abbott would not give Mary a divorce. They had three daughters and were a devoted couple who loved and were fiercely protective of their children. Mary and Robert were feisty, and quick to take offence. They successfully sought justice through the courts for unpaid wages. They had conflicts with their immediate neighbours and were each once found guilty of assault or using offensive language.

Mary left Te Aroha in 1908 to live with her younger daughters in Auckland. She died in 1914.

Panel materials: Unbleached calico donated by fabric artist friend Marian Scott-Rowe. Strengthened by two layers of firm interfacing, plus a layer of cotton, hand-tacked together, then machine-tacked. Old tatting and crochet. The top and bottom strips are cuffs from a dress made by my grandmother, a daughter of Mary Michael; the two doilies that frame the central photo were also made by her, probably in the 1920s. (The white one first, then I realised it did not enhance the photo, so added the tea-coloured one.) I bought the beads new. Nine dots on the top panel represent Mary’s nine siblings. (So far only three are known to have survived childhood and had descendants.) Three shiny white flowers and purple bead hearts are ‘suffrage camellias’ for each of Mary’s three daughters (her only children) who benefited from her signing the petition, as have all the next generations of her descendants.