Maker: Ruby Armstrong-Kooy

Panel number: 435

Petition sheet number: 530

Person honouring: Isabella Boddie 

Relationship to maker: None

When Isabella Boddie signed the suffrage petition, she had given birth to 10 children, buried two in infancy, emigrated from Scotland and settled with her family in New Zealand.

Isabella Nicoll was born in 1847 in Scotland. She was the daughter of Isabella Leith and James Nicoll and the youngest of six children.

She married James Boddie in 1875 and in 1899 they sailed to Melbourne on the Iberia with seven children. The same year, they sailed on to New Plymouth and became farmers in Taranaki. 

Isabella gave birth to her last child in 1892, the only one born in New Zealand. In 1894 she is recorded as the leaseholder for 118 acres of land near Hawera. Over the years, Isabella and James and several of their children farmed in Eltham and then Te Kuiti. Later, James and Isabella spent many years in Auckland. 

All this time, James was involved in dairy companies, the Farmer’s Union, and politics, becoming the first mayor of Te Kuiti. He later sat on education and hospital boards, was a JP and a coroner. No doubt he was ably supported by Isabella.

James died in 1931 and Isabella died in 1939, both back in Te Kuiti.

Panel materials: 100% recycled fabrics collected over many years from Wellington op shops, recycled embroidery, Japanese origami paper, embroidery thread, ink.