Mary Windeyer

{{Short description|Australian community worker (1837–1912)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}

{{Use Australian English|date=November 2017}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = Lady

| name = Mary Elizabeth Windeyer

| image = Lady Mary Elizabeth Windeyer 1890-crop.jpg

| alt = Lady Mary Elizabeth Windeyer 1890 1st president of the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales.

| caption =

| birth_name = Mary Elizabeth Bolton

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1836|9|28|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Hove, Sussex

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1912|12|3|1836|9|28|df=yes}}

| death_place = Tomago, New South Wales

| spouse = William Charles Windeyer

| children = Maria (1859-1931)
Mary Emily (1861-1950)
Wilhelmina (1863-1864)
Jane (1865-1950)
Margaret (1866-1939)
Richard (1868–1959)
William Archibald (1871-1943)
Lucy (1872-1920)
Edward (1876-1942)

| parents = Reverend Robert Thorley Bolton & Jane Martha Ball

| occupation = child welfare reformer, temperance advocate, welfare worker, women's activist

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

Lady Mary Elizabeth Windeyer (28 September 1836 – 3 December 1912) was an Australian women's rights campaigner, particularly in relation to women's suffrage in New South Wales, a philanthropist and charity organizer.{{cite book |first=Heather |last=Radi |authorlink= |title=Windeyer, Lady Mary Elizabeth (1836–1912) |publisher=Australian National University |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/windeyer-lady-mary-elizabeth-1059.html |accessdate=22 November 2017}}

Mary was born on 28 September 1836, at Hove in Sussex, England, one of eleven children of the Reverend Robert Thorley Bolton and Jane Martha Ball. On 8 April 1839 the Rev Bolton, his wife and six children, including Mary, left Plymouth, England on the barque Strathfieldsaye, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales on 25 July 1839,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28653739 |title=Shipping intelligence |newspaper=The Sydney Herald |date=26 July 1839 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} and the family moved to Hexham, New South Wales where Rev Bolton was the minister at St Stephen's church.{{cite web |url=http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/culture/religion/display/94014-st-stephen%60s-church-of-england |title=St Stephen's Church of England |publisher=Monument Australia |accessdate=22 November 2017}} In 1863 Rev Bolton was held to be the father of an illegitimate son.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59792951 |title=The extraordinary clerical affiliation case |newspaper=Bell's Life In Sydney And Sporting Chronicle |date=25 April 1863 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}; {{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6052282 |newspaper=Bell's Life In Sydney And Sporting Chronicle |title=The extraordinary clerical affiliation case concluded|date=2 May 1863 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}

On 31 December 1857 Mary married William Charles Windeyer,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13004666 |title=Family Notices: Marriages |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=4 January 1858 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} then a barrister and law reporter for the Empire.{{cite book |first= |last= |title=Windeyer, Sir William Charles (1834–1897) |publisher=Australian National University |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/windeyer-sir-william-charles-1062 |accessdate=22 November 2017}} Coincidentally William's mentor, Henry Parkes, emigrated to NSW on the same vessel as Mary in 1839.{{cite book |author=Martin, A. W. |title=Parkes, Sir Henry (1815–96) |publisher=Australian National University |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/parkes-sir-henry-4366 |accessdate=22 November 2017}} William and Mary had nine children between 1859 and 1876, although one child, Wilhelmina, died in infancy, aged 1.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13086844 |title=Family Notices: Deaths |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=19 April 1864 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Mary was seriously ill in 1874 and in 1876 and during that time stayed with her mother-in-law Maria Windeyer at Tomago House,{{cite web |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/tomago-house/ |title=Tomago House |publisher=National Trust of Australia |accessdate=22 November 2017}} Tomago, New South Wales.

In 1874 Mary was one of a group of wealthy women who established the foundling hospital at Darlinghurst, initially to reduce infanticide by providing a home for infants, then reorganised to provide care for mothers with illegitimate children. The hospital subsequently became The Infants' Home Child and Family Services.{{cite web |url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE00340 |title=Sydney Foundling Hospital (1874 - 1877) |publisher=Find & connect |accessdate=22 November 2017}}

In 1879 Mary was a founding member of the Boarding Out Society, along with Mrs Marian Jefferis, Lady Marian Allen and Mrs Mary Ischam Garran. The purpose of the society was to help find homes for children to remove them from state run orphanages. In 1881 the NSW government established the Children's Relief Board, and Mary was one of the first board members.{{cite web |url=https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/agency/111 |title=State Children's Relief Board |publisher=NSW State Archives and Records |accessdate=22 November 2017}}

Mary's sister, Anne Jane Bolton, was one of the first women to sit the senior public examination in 1871, winning the Fairfax prize for the best female candidate.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfk4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA61 |title=Knowing Women: Origins of Women's Education in Nineteenth-Century Australia |author=Theobald, M |year=1996 |page=61 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521422321}} Mary was a member of the fundraising committee for the establishment of The Women's College.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28052604 |title=Sydney University. The Women's College |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=30 June 1928 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}} Sir William was actively involved at the University of Sydney, being the Vice Chancellor from 1883 to 1887, founding chairman of the Women's College and Chancellor from 1895 to 1896.

File:Exhibition building, Prince Alfred Park, c. 1870s (5593315821).jpg

In 1886 Mary and William visited England and on her return Mary helped to organize the Exhibition of Women's Industries and Centenary Fair 1888, that was part of the centenary celebrations of the arrival of the First Fleet.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13698535 |title=Exhibition of Women's industries |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=4 October 1888 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} Mary was the delegate for the dealing with "Educational examination and competition in classic and modern languages, original compositions in prose and verse, ambulance work, sericulture, and the important work of sick nursing".{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162172763 |title=Lady Windeyer |newspaper=The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=4 July 1891 |accessdate=22 November 2017 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Mary was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of New South Wales. Together with Rose Scott, Mary was a founder of the NSW Women's Literary Society which developed into the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales and Mary was the foundation president. She became Lady Mary when William was knighted in 1891.

Mary started campaigning for a Women's hospital in 1893, in order to help poor women and to train nurses. This was achieved in 1895 Dr James Graham founded what became the Crown Street Women's Hospital,{{cite book|last1=Caldwell|first1=Margaret|title=Graham, Sir James (1856–1913)|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/graham-sir-james-3649|website=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |accessdate=22 November 2017}} and Mary was the first president of the hospital.

After William died in 1897, Mary moved to live at Tomago House. Mary died at Tomago on 3 December 1912 aged 76 and her estate was valued at A£11,408, the equivalent of A$1,341,088 in 2016.{{cite web |url=https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html |title=Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator |date=30 October 2015 |publisher=Reserve Bank of Australia |access-date=22 November 2017}}