Maker: Tina Billing

Panel number: 329

Petition sheet number: 390

Person honouring: Mary Billing

Relationship to maker: None

Mary Billing signed the petition in Thames when she was 63, a mother of nine, and the wife of a miner.  

Mary May was born in 1840 in Cornwall; her husband John Billing was born in 1834 also in Cornwall. 

They married in 1858 and emigrated to New Zealand in the 1860s. Between 1860 and 1880 Mary gave birth to four girls and five boys and the family settled in Thames, where John and some of the boys were involved in mining. 

Around the time of the suffrage petition, they were based at Karaka Creek. There were hundreds of claims on the Thames goldfields and the Karaka was one of the busiest.  

John Billing died in 1899 and Mary died in 1917. They are buried in Shortland cemetery in Thames along with three of their sons.  

Panel materials: Doily, ribbon, lace, and buttons.