Maker: Lisa Swan

Panel number: 429

Petition sheet number: 521

Person honouring: Margaret Nicholson Funston

Relationship to maker: Father’s great-grandmother

Margaret Nicholson Taylor was born in Arbroath, Scotland, on 10 April 1847. The family moved to Dunedin in 1862 or 1863 where her father James was in business as a brewer.

Margaret married Thomas Funston, who was born in Pettigo, Ireland, in Greymouth on 20 February 1873. Thomas was a draper and direct importer of fabrics and household goods, and Margaret was known for her handiwork.

Thomas and their oldest daughter, Leah, worked for Thomas McBeath in Greytown (Mr J G Thomas was Margaret’s brother-in-law), and Thomas was in business at Aberdeen house in Foxton.

They lived in Daisybank house in Marton where Thomas managed the soft goods department of Davenport Brothers store. 

Margaret signed the suffrage petition while living in Marton. She is registered on the Rangitikei Electoral Roll in 1893. 

Thomas and Margaret moved to Colyton in 1916. Thomas ran the store, where he was widely known for his fine and high-quality drapery, and his special linen counter, which gave the local housewives a chance to purchase some of the refinements of life. He also held the office of Postmaster there.

They then moved to Palmerston North, living with their daughter Minnie and her family. Their son-in-law, Alfred Wilkinson, continued to care for them after Minnie died in 1923, at only 41 years of age. 

Margaret was wheelchair-bound in her last years. She passed away two years after Thomas (who died at 82 in 1927), on 11 August 1929, aged 78, at the Old People’s Home in Awapuni.

Panel materials: Most materials I used were pieces I already had: a piece of tartan from my mother’s childhood Scottish country dancing costume, vintage handmade lace from Scotland, and a vintage thistle-embroidered serviette, representing Margaret’s birthplace of Scotland; a length of linen for the background, and a vintage fine Irish linen handkerchief, representing Thomas’s birthplace of Ireland. 46 purchased daisies to signify the 46 signatories on the page, and for Daisybank (the house Margaret was living in when she signed the petition); images printed on fabric of Newgate House in Arbroath (where Margaret was born), where the family’s brewery business was when they settled in Dunedin, and some of the signatures on page 521 of the petition.