Maker: Paulette Bruns

Panel number: 404

Petition sheet number: 493

Person honouring: Mary Daysh

Relationship to maker: Great-great-grandmother

Mary Daysh (Elizabeth Mary Ings Daysh) was born in October 1833. She emigrated to New Zealand in November 1841, aged just eight years, with her parents – to Lower Hutt from Wickham in England. 

When Mary was 20 she married 23-year-old William Southee in Lower Hutt. They had two children before William died after only three years of marriage.

Five years later Mary married her second husband, John Rayner who was five years her junior. She had a further 10 children with him.

They settled in the Wairarapa as stud sheep farmers, breeding Lincolns. They also owned a flour mill sited on the south-west side of the Waingawa River, over the railway line, the foundation of which still exists. They later built a house called The Grange, which still stands today having been restored, on the Hughes Line south of the Waingawa substation.

Mary signed the women’s suffrage petition in Masterton aged 60; she passed away aged 68 on 16 December 1901 in Masterton.

Panel materials: Recycled fabric and trims from old sewing projects, a chiffon scarf, and a piece of lace from my wedding dress made 25 years ago.