Mary Reibey

Reibey, baptised Molly Haydock, was born on 12 May 1777 in Bury, Lancashire, England. Following the death of her parents, she was reared by a grandmother and sent into service. She ran away, and was arrested for stealing a horse in August 1791.Daily Telegraph, 12 May 2009, p. 37 At the time, she was disguised as a boy and was going under the name of James Burrow.{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography|id2=reibey-mary-2583|title=Reibey, Mary (1777–1855)|author=Walsh, G. P.|year=1967|volume=2}} Sentenced to seven years' transportation, she arrived in Sydney, Australia, on the Royal Admiral in October 1792.

File: Mary Reibey letter 1792.jpg, Sydney, on 8 October 1792.{{cite web|url=http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110012535?_ga=2.149462079.845057053.1554432321-846167587.1554432321|title=Penelope Hope – letter received from her niece Molly Haydock (Mary Reibey), Sydney, 8 October 1792|publisher=State Library of New South Wales|access-date=15 March 2013}}]]

On 7 September 1794, 17-year-old Mary married Thomas Reibey, after he had proposed to her several times; she finally agreed to marry the junior officer on the store ship Britannia. Reibey also used the surnames Raiby, Reiby and Reibey interchangeably; the family adopted the spelling Reibey in later years. Thomas Reibey was granted land on the Hawkesbury River, where he and Mary lived and farmed following their marriage. They built a farmhouse called Reibycroft, which is now listed on the Register of the National Estate.The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company, 1981, pp. 2/22

Thomas Reibey commenced a cargo business along the Hawkesbury River to Sydney and later moved to Sydney. Thomas Reibey's business undertakings prospered, enabling him in 1804 to build a substantial stone residence on a further grant of land near Macquarie Place. He acquired several farms on the Hawkesbury River and traded in coal, cedar, furs and skins. He entered into a partnership with Edward Wills, and trading activities were extended to the Bass Strait, the Pacific Islands and, from 1809 to China and India.

When Thomas Reibey died on 5 April 1811, Mary assumed sole responsibility for the care of seven children and the control of numerous business enterprises. She was no stranger to this task, having managed her husband's affairs during his frequent absences from Sydney. Now a woman of considerable wealth by her husband's businesses, Reibey continued to expand her business interests. In 1812 she opened a new warehouse in George Street and in 1817 extended her shipping operations with the purchase of further vessels. In the same year, the Bank of New South Wales was founded in her house in Macquarie Place.{{cite web|url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/bank_of_new_south_wales |title=Bank of New South Wales |work=Dictionary of Sydney |year=2008 |access-date=25 November 2018}}{{cite book |author1=Bank of New South Wales |title=Australia's first bank : a brief history |date=1974 |publisher=Bank of New South Wales |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-909719-14-2 }}

By 1828, when she gradually retired from active involvement in commerce, she had acquired extensive property holdings in the city. Like many others, however, she was on occasions somewhat economical with the truth. In March 1820 she had returned to England with her daughters to visit her native village, and came back to Sydney the next year. So in the 1828 census, when asked to describe her condition, she declared that she "came free in 1821".

In the emancipist Society of New South Wales, she gained respect for her charitable works and her interest in the church and education. She was one of the founding Governors of the Free Grammar School in 1825.

Reibey built a cottage in the suburb of Hunters Hill, New South Wales, circa 1836, where she lived for some time. The cottage, situated on the shores of the Lane Cove River, was later acquired by the Joubert brothers, who enlarged it. It is now known as Fig Tree House and is listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate.

On her retirement, she built a house at Newtown, Sydney, where she lived until her death on 30 May 1855 from pneumonia. She was 78 years old.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28641226 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |volume=XXXVI |issue=5601 |date=31 May 1855 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} She was buried at the Sandhills Cemetery, and, when that was resumed, moved to the cemetery at La Perouse.{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66354641|title=Margaret Catchpole (To the Editor)|newspaper=Hawkesbury Herald|date=19 June 1903|page=15|via=Trove}} A memorial for Reibey is in the Pioneer Memorial Park in Botany Cemetery.[https://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/pioneer_memorial_park "Pioneer Memorial Park"], The Dictionary of Sydney

File:Australian 20 dollar note Reverse Fourth Series.jpeg

An enterprising and determined person of strong personality, during her lifetime Reibey earned a reputation as an astute and successful business woman in the colony of New South Wales. She is featured on the obverse of Australian twenty-dollar notes printed since 1994{{cite web | url=http://banknotes.rba.gov.au/ausbanknotes.html#!note/20 | title=The Australian $20 Banknote | publisher=Reserve Bank of Australia | access-date=4 February 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831214808/http://banknotes.rba.gov.au/ausbanknotes.html#!note/20 | archive-date=31 August 2012}} and on its replacement design since 2019.{{cite press release|url=https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2019/mr-19-28.html|title=Next Generation of Banknotes: $20 Enters General Circulation|date=8 October 2019|access-date=11 June 2023|publisher=Reserve Bank of Australia}} She was posthumously inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.{{Cite web |date= |title=Mary Reibey |url=https://www.vic.gov.au/mary-reibey |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=State Government of Victoria |language=en-au}}

One of Mary and Thomas Reibey's grandchildren, Thomas Reibey (1821–1912), was the premier of Tasmania from 1876 to 1877.

At least three novels have been written based on her life:

• The novel Sara Dane (1954) by Catherine Gaskin, which has sold over 2 million copies, is only loosely factually accurate. It was made into a television mini-series in 1982, which added romantic entanglements and a second-marriage for the title character, which did not occur for Mary Reibey .Gaskin, Catherine (1954). Sara Dane. London & Sydney: Collins.
• More accurate is the novel Mary Reibey by Kathleen Pullen.{{cite book|last=Pullen|first=Kathleen J.|year=2011|title=Mary Reibey: The Woman on the $20 Note|location=Sydney|publisher=New Holland|isbn=978-1-74257-109-6}} Originally published by Sydney Ure Smith in 1975.
• Nance Donkin's historical children's novel House by the Water (Angus and Robertson; Sydney, 1970: Penguin; Ringwood, 1973) tells part of Mary Reibey's story, but is no longer in print.

Donkin also wrote An Emancipist, illustrated by Jane Robinson (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1968), a biography of Mary Reibey, written for children.

Meg Keneally's novel The Wreck (2020 Zaffre, {{ISBN|978-1838771393}}) features a character, Mrs Molly Thistle, based loosely on Mary Reibey.{{cite news |last1=O'Shea |first1=Frank |title=Clear-eyed and vivid depiction of early Australia |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6985483/clear-eyed-and-vivid-depiction-of-early-australia/ |access-date=17 March 2021 |work=The Canberra Times|date=31 October 2020}}

Grantlee Kieza's biography, The Remarkable Mrs Reibey was published in 2023.{{cite book|last=Kieza|first=Grantlee|title=The Remarkable Mrs Reibey|year=2023|publisher=ABC Books (HarperCollins)|location=Australia|isbn=978-0733341502}}

She also inspired the TV musical Pardon Miss Westcott (1959) and her life was dramatised in the radio plays Fulfilment (1948) by Rex Rienits and Mary Reibey by Dymphna Cusack.

{{portal|Australia|Biography}}

• List of convicts transported to Australia
• Sydney Cove West Archaeological Precinct

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Cole|first=Diana Marlay|title=Mary Reibey|date=2016|location=Haymarket, New South Wales|publisher=Little Red Apple Publishing|edition=2nd, corrected|isbn=978-0-9944361-8-4|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|last=Drummond|first=Allan|others=illustrated by Glenn Lumsden|title=Mary Reibey|date=2011|location=Mordialloc, Victoria|publisher=Green Barrow Publishing|isbn=978-1-876460-15-0|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|last=Irvine|first=Nance|title=Dear cousin : the Reibey letters|date=1995|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35102786|publisher=Hale & Iremonger|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|last=Irvine|first=Nance|title=Mary Reibey – Molly Incognita : a biography of Mary Reibey 1777 to 1855, and her world|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/191439276/version/210919127|date=1982|publisher=Library of Australian History|isbn=090812046X|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|last=Radi|first=Heather| title=200 Australian Women|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7656742|date=1988|publisher=Women's Redress Press|isbn=978-0-9589603-7-3|ref=none}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Mary Reibey}}
• [https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/mary-reibey-convict-and-businesswoman/ "Mary Reibey – convict and businesswoman"], Museums of History NSW
• [https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,Mary%20Reibey&tab=default_tab&vid=61SRA&offset=0 "Mary Reibey related entries"], NSW State Archives

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Category:1777 births

Category:1855 deaths

Category:People from Bury, Greater Manchester

Category:Female-to-male cross-dressers

Category:18th-century English criminals

Category:English female criminals

Category:Women convicts transported to Australia

Category:Women in Sydney

Category:19th-century Australian businesspeople

Category:19th-century Australian businesswomen

Category:Australian women philanthropists

Category:Australian philanthropists