Makers: Yvonne Simpson and Clare Shaw

Panel number: 439

Petition sheet number: 534

Person honouring: Martha Keown

Relationship to makers: From our part of New Zealand

Martha Anne Keown was both a petition signatory and a hotel licence holder. 

Martha Ball was born on 25 November 1836 in Lambeth, London, England, the oldest child in a family of eight children. Her mother was Martha Ann Hedgley and her father was Alfred Ball.

In September 1858 she left Liverpool for Australia on the Shooting Star as one of about 414 mainly female assisted migrants on board. She arrived in Melbourne on 11 December 1858 and two days later became a domestic servant for one year, at a salary of £25 [pounds].

After several years in Australia, Martha moved to Greymouth in June 1867, staying first at the White Horse Hotel – until Andrew Thredgold, a gentleman dressed in ‘riding clothes’, called looking for a woman to housekeep for himself, his business partner Robert Keown, and two other men. 

Martha married Robert Keown on 1 April 1868 at Sweeney’s Hotel, Greymouth. Together they had six children: Alfred, Mary, Robert, Lucy, Thomas, and Frederick. Martha appears to have been strong-willed and had a very dominating influence on the life of her children. She encouraged them to learn music as well as keeping them all away from anything more than limited social drinking. 

After Robert’s death in February 1906, Martha took over the Australasian Hotel licence, which she held from June 1906 until 5 December 1906. She is believed to have been the only woman in New Zealand holding such a licence at that time.

Martha was aged 87 when she died on 4 November 1924.

Panel materials: Embroidery, buttons, and permanent markers. We added the Soroptimist badge and a decoration of lace and tatting.