200 Australian Women

Louisa Emma Miller (1839-1917), labour activist and feminist, was born on 26 June 1839 at Chesterfield, England, eldest of four children of Martha (born Hollingworth) and Daniel Holmes, cordwainer. Of a Chartist family, she never forgot the early lessons which influenced her to live and die a rebel. Throughout her life she followed a creed learnt from the writings of Tom Paine: 'The world is my country; to do good is my religion'. She eloped with Jabez Silcock in 1857 and they had four children, whom she supported after his death by sewing 70 hours a week.

Laura Mary Louisa Corbin (1841-1906), crèche founder, was born on 26 April 1841 in Adelaide, daughter of Mary Louisa (born Newenham) and Alfred Hardy, surveyor. The family later lived at Glen Osmond where Laura, 'a book scarcely ever out of her hands', and possessed of 'a sweet disposition', was educated by her mother. On 16 June 1869 at St Michael's Church of England, Mitcham, she married Thomas Wilson Corbin, a country doctor. After a year overseas in 1872 Dr Corbin practised in South Adelaide. They had ten children.

Bridgetena Smyth (1842-1898), campaigner for women's health reform and for women's political rights, was born at Kyneton, Victoria, second daughter of Bridgetena (born Cavanagh) and John Riordan, a small merchant. She was named after her mother but always known as Brettena. In 1861 she married William Taylor Smyth, a storekeeper, who died in 1873 of phthisis. Brettena supported her children by changing the little greengrocery and confectionery shop which William had started in North Melbourne into a drapery and druggist's business.

Maybanke Susannah Anderson (1845-1927), feminist reformer, was born at Kingston-on-Thames, England, on 16 February 1845, one of three children of Bessie (born Smith) and Henry Selfe, plumber. In 1854 they sailed on the Bangalore to Sydney where they lived in the Rocks district. While her brothers Norman and Henry were apprenticed to engineer P. N. Russell and Maybanke trained as a teacher, their father left them. In 1867 at St Philip's church, Sydney, Maybanke married Edmund Kay Wolstenholme, timber merchant.

Marian Fleming Harwood (1846-1934), anti-war activist, scholar and philanthropist, was born in Greenock, Scotland, daughter of Catherine (born Barnett) and Henry Reid, merchant. Raised in Belfast in an intellectual environment as a pacifist and feminist, she studied romance philology under Heinrich Morf at the University of Zurich before her marriage to Dr Septimus Harwood. She came to Australia for the sake of her husband's health in l885 but returned to Ireland, childless, on his death shortly afterwards.

Rose Scott (1847-1925), feminist, was born on 15 October 1847 at 'Glendon' near Singleton, New South Wales, fifth of eight children born to Sarah Anne (born Rusden), an accomplished linguist and scholar, and Helenus Scott, pastoralist and later police magistrate in Maitland. Rose was educated at home by her mother. Her brothers were sent to grammar school; the family took a keen interest in the private school education of their sons. They were 'well-connected' and made regular trips to Sydney participating in social, cultural and intellectual events. Rose did not marry.

Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922), natural history painter, was born in Melbourne on 30 July 1848, the first of seven children of Charles Ryan and his wife Marian, daughter of the botanist, sketcher and settler John Cotton. Ellis (as she was always called) had a normal middle-class girl's education, including tuition in watercolour painting. She may also have had private art lessons in both Melbourne and England (which she first visited in 1869), although claiming, with characteristic exaggeration, to have been entirely self-taught.

Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe (1850-1928), artist, was born at Sedgeford Hall, Norfolk, England, on 3 January 1850, fourth of nine children of Martha and Charles Fawcett Neville-Rolfe. While her Oxford-educated father helped tutor her brothers, Jane Neville-Rolfe received her early education from a governess and learnt Latin from the local vicar. From 1861-63 the family lived in Italy, where her childhood talent for drawing developed.

Bessy Cameron (1851-1895), Aboriginal teacher, was born probably in 1851 in Nyungar country (King George Sound), West Australia. Her mother's name is not known; her father was an 'old native servant' of Henry Camfield, Government Resident at Albany. Anne Camfield, a governess and teacher before marriage to Henry, in 1852 opened a 'native institution' (later known as Annesfield) with the backing of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel where Aboriginal children were to be 'trained in the habits of civilised life' and 'taught the great truths of Christianity'.

Rosa Catherine Fiveash (1854-1938), botanical artist, was born on 22 July 1854 in Adelaide, youngest child of Margaret (born Rees) and Robert Archibald Fiveash, businessman and mine superintendent. Educated by a governess, trained in art by Miss A. Benham and from 1881-88 at the Adelaide Schools of Art and of Design, Rosa 'the little one in black' was selected from the school's pupils to illustrate J. Ednie Brown's Forest Flora of South Australia (1882-90). Rosa painted 32 of the 45 plates.

Katie Langloh Parker (1856-1940), writer, was born on 1 May 1856 at 'Luilyl', Encounter Bay, South Australia, the home of her grandparents, Martha and Rev. Ridgway William Newland. Her parents were Henry and Sophia Field and she was christened Catherine Eliza Somerville, the fourth of eight children. Her father, overlander and pastoralist, had taken up 'Marra' station on the Darling in partnership with Edward and Andrew Chisholm. His brother-in-law Simpson Newland, author of Paving the Way, later became a partner.

Barbara Jane Baynton (1857-1929), writer, was born on 4 June 1857 at Scone, New South Wales, the youngest daughter of Elizabeth (born Ewart) and John Lawrence, carpenter. Her parents were bounty emigrants from Londonderry, Ireland. Throughout her life she alleged she was the daughter of Captain Robert Kilpatrick and Penelope Ewart and she gave her age as five years younger than she was.

Eleanor Stewart Towzey (1858-1931), singer and actress, was born on 22 November 1858 in Wolloomooloo, Sydney, daughter of Theodosia Stewart, actress, and her actor husband Richard Towzey, who changed his name to Stewart. There were two half-sisters from her mother's previous marriage to James Guerin, theatre musician. Nellie made her stage debut as a child playing with her father in The Stranger at the Haymarket, Melbourne. She attended boarding school, which she disliked, and at Christmas played pantomime under her father's management.

Daisy May Bates (1859-1951), journalist, was born on 14 October 1859 in County Tipperary, Ireland, into a Catholic family, as Dwyer or O'Dwyer. Though in her 80th year she admitted her correct age, she earlier stated her birth date as 1863 and invented genteel Anglo-Irish Anglican connections. She arrived as an assisted immigrant to Townsville, Queensland, in January 1883, and as governess on 'Fanny Downs' station married Edwin Murrant (better known as 'Breaker' Morant) on 13 March 1884 at Charters Towers. His arrest on a charge of larceny soon afterwards ended the marriage.