Author: THOMAS, Mary
Biography:
THOMAS, Mary, formerly HARRIS (1787-1875: ADB)
Mary Harris was baptised at Holy Rood Church, Southampton, Hampshire, on 22 Aug. 1787 (not born 30 Aug.), daughter of an innkeeper and merchant, George Harris, and his wife Mary Batchelor. On 8 Jan. 1818 she married Robert Thomas (1782-1860), a London law stationer and printer, at the same church. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy. The eldest, Robert George Thomas, emigrated to Australia as an apprentice surveyor and the rest of the family followed closely after, arriving in Nov. 1836. Robert Thomas (Senior) published the first issue of his South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register in London in June 1836 and the second in Adelaide in June 1837; he was also the official government printer. Between 1837 and 1842, at which point the paper passed into other hands, Mary Thomas wrote articles for it. From 1842 to 1872 she was occupied in managing thirteen properties owned by the family, besides a leased hotel. She died at Adelaide on 10 Feb. 1875. Selections from her travel diary and letters home, 1836-41, were published by a descendant in 1915 and 1925. According to ADB some unpublished poems written before she emigrated remain in family hands but no poems written in Australia have survived. (ADB 19 Aug. 2024; ancestry.com 19 Aug. 2024; findmypast.com 19 Aug. 2024) HJ
Other Names:
- Mrs. Thomas