Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/mary-ellen-blaxland

Birth Place

Parramatta, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

sketcher, was the youngest daughter and eleventh and last child of the merchant and settler John Blaxland and Harriott, daughter of a Calcutta merchant, Jean Louis de Marquet. The Blaxlands had arrived in New South Wales with five children on 3 April 1807 on board The Brothers , and six more were born after they settled at Newington, an estate of 1290 acres on the Parramatta River granted to John Blaxland by Governor William Bligh . For 20 years the Newington homestead remained a modest colonial cottage, until 1829 when Mary’s parents began building a grand two-storey Regency style stuccoed brick house with cedar joinery and slate roof, one of the grandest houses in the colony at the time; Rachel Roxburgh suggests that Henry Cooper may have been the architect. Mary’s pencil view of Newington, signed 'M. Blaxland 12 Jany 1834’ (Blaxland Papers, ML) was probably drawn to commemorate the house’s completion. Two unsigned pencil and watercolour views of Newington also exist in the family papers, both done after the verandah had been added. Certainly by a member of the family, they too seem likely to have been Mary’s work, although all the girls sketched and these and other unsigned watercolours in the Blaxland Papers could be by Mary or any of her five sisters: Harriott Mary, Mrs Arthur Macdonald Ritchie (m. 1816), then Lady Dowling (m. 1835); Anna Elizabeth, Mrs Thomas Walker (1804-89); Jane ; Louisa ; or Eliza Maria, Mrs Henry Breton (m. 1832). Numerous grandchildren also stayed at Newington and were encouraged to sketch by their grandmother and aunts, so some of their efforts may also be in family collections. The most notable artist of the next generation was Anna Frances Walker . Mary Blaxland married William Macquarie Molle on 25 February 1836 at St John’s Church of England, Parramatta, having met him when he was visiting Newington from India. Annie Walker repeats the family story that Molle had vowed to marry the first Miss Blaxland he saw and Mary, aged seventeen, was at home alone doing the flowers when he arrived. She went to India with him, returning home to have her first child. She died in Sydney on 16 January 1843, soon after her son George was born. Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1815

Summary

The youngest of merchant and settler John Blaxland's 11 children, Mary Ellen Blaxland and her sisters were all encouraged to sketch by their mother and the drawings of Mary Ellen, that depict the renovated family estate Newington at Parramatta, are held in the Blaxland Papers at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Gender

Female

Died

16 January 1843

Age at death

28