Mary Reibey (Australia $20 banknote)

The article that had been archived on the MSNS Website is no longer
available there. You can find it he

http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/RoR...hip/0019.shtml

Rebirth of Reason is an Objectivist website.

Mike M.

Mike Marotta wrote:
The article that had been archived on the MSNS Website is no longer
available there. You can find it he

http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/RoR...hip/0019.shtml

Rebirth of Reason is an Objectivist website.

Mike M.

Log-in required. And I wanted to read it too. Guess its Google time!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Marotta"
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.paper-money,rec.collecting.coins
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 4:27 AM
Subject: Mary Reibey (Australia $20 banknote)


The article that had been archived on the MSNS Website is no longer
available there. You can find it he

http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/RoR...hip/0019.shtml

Rebirth of Reason is an Objectivist website.

Mike M.

Come clean Mike.
The *real* reason you acquired one of our $20s is the aeroplane on the
reverse, yes?


http://www.mendosus.com/currency/jpg/$20-obv.jpg (Mary)
http://www.mendosus.com/currency/jpg/$20-rev.jpg (The real reason!)

http://www.mendosus.com/currency/cur...c-current.html (the lot)
http://www.mendosus.com/currency/index.html (and more)

You _do_ have a Lawrence:
http://www.mendosus.com/currency/jpg/$20-paper-rev.jpg

and a Kingsford-Smith:
http://www.mendosus.com/currency/jpg/$20-paper-obv.jpg
I assume.

(No log-in required)

--
Jeff R.

AUSTRALIA'S PIONEER WOMAN CAPITALIST
by Michael E. Marotta (Originally published by The Mich-Matist)

Mary Reibey's portrait graces the $20 note of the Reserve Bank of
Australia. She was one of Australia's leading entrepreneurs. Yet, the
facts about her life are few and some of them are in dispute. Whatever
else she was, she was a private person whose deeds spoke for her.

She was born Molly Haydock, May 12, 1777 in Bury, Lancashire, England.
After her parents died, her grandmother raised her and sent her to be a
house servant. However, she ran away from her employer and -- dressed
as a boy -- was arrested for stealing a horse. She called herself
"James Barrow," but the trial revealed her true identity. That was
August 1791 when she was 14. Her punishment was transportation to
Australia. Carried on the Royal Admiral, she landed in October 1792 in
New South Wales. Some of her early letters have been archived and her
first letter from Australia shows a strong hand. However, her spelling
and grammar are both colloquial and arbitrary. She also seems unclear
about the terms of her punishment, which is surprising -- and she let
herself be cheated out of two guineas. None of that predicted the
woman she would become.

On October 17, 1792, she wrote from Botany Bay: "... the tell me I am
for life wich The Governor teld me I was but for 7 years wich Grives me
very much to think of it but I will watch every oppertunity to get away
in too or 3 years But I will make my self as happy as I Can In my
Pressent and unhappy situation ... Mr Scot Took 2 Ginnues of me and
said he would get me My Libberty ..." She signed the letter "Mary
Haydock." The spellings (the for they; grives for grieves) might let
us hear how she sounded to herself.

Taken to Sydney, she was assigned as a nursemaid to the household of
Major Francis Grose. A founder of Sydney, Maj. Grose had served his
king fighting the American revolutionaries. Maj. Grose's 500 marines
were supposed to be the garrison for the penal colony. However, they
came to be called The Rum Corps. How you judge the major and his men
depends on how democratic, egalitarian or opportunistic you are.
Certainly, Grose showed some wry insight in making a nursemaid of the
girl who had disguised herself as a boy.

Mary Haydock was married to Thomas Raby on September 7, 1794. Thomas
Raby was a junior officer on the East India Company's store ship
Britannia. (He spelled his name Raiby, Reiby and Reibey. The family
settled on the last spelling. Also, there is a parallel claim that
Raby had been an officer on the Royal Admiral and met Mary at that
time.) Among other endeavors, Raby was brokering grain. In 1794, he
acquired a grant of land on the Hawkesbury River. There, within the
steep valleys and dense forests, the Rabys established a farm.

His enterprise extended to coal, furs and skins and by 1803 Thomas
owned three boats. Also, in 1803, Thomas Reiby advertised cedar beams
for sale in the Sydney Gazette. He traded his goods along the
Hawkesbury and Hunter rivers, bringing raw materials and produce to
Sydney. Mary operated a bakery. In 1804, prosperous, the family moved
to Sydney. In 1805 Thomas Reibey built an impressive new home: two
stories, 50 feet long, 30 feet high, and with two granaries in back.
They called it "Entally House" after a suburb in Calcutta. They leased
out the old home. Thomas bought several more farms along the
Hawkesbury River. He created a partnership with Edward Wills and
together they ordered the 53-ton schooner, Mercury, built in Sydney
over 1805-06. In 1807, Reiby's enterprises moved farther from home,
out to the Pacific islands and, by 1809, all the way to China and
India. In addition, in 1809, he received an appointment as a harbor
pilot. Late in 1809, he set sail for India. There, he fell victim to
sunstroke, from which he never fully recovered, dying in Sydney on
April 5, 1811. Mary took over the business.

Obviously, she had been running things in his absences over the last 15
years. Still, she had seven children to care for and a sprawling
business establishment to manage. Mary Reibey expanded her interests.
In 1812, she opened a new warehouse in George Street; and in 1817 she
bought two more ships. She owned farms, the family sealing operation at
Bass Strait, and, of course, the overseas commerce. Mary opened a new
warehouse in 1812, and extended her fleet with the purchase of two more
ships in 1817. Also in 1817, she was a founding member of the Bank of
New South Wales (called "Westpac" since 1982).

Maj. Francis Grose's star set with the Rum Rebellion of 1808. In
1810, a new governor brought a new regiment. Fortunately, perhaps,
governor William Bligh fell ill. His lieutenant governor, Lachlan
Macquarie stepped in. Macquarie was a man of foresight and broad
vision. He established a program of town planning and building that
created a firm infrastructure. He encouraged the exploration that
already had reached deep into the inland. When Mary returned from
taking her daughters to England in 1820, she launched several new
buildings in Sydney. Not surprisingly, Mary Reibey was welcomed into
the governor's social circle. Mary's appointment as a governor of the
Free Grammar School in 1825 was typical of her new concerns.

At age 50, she began to withdraw from direct management of the
business. She focused on social issues in emancipist communities. (The
"emancipists" were those convicts who had served out their sentences.
The term also refers to their children, spouses, and other legally free
people. They were distinct from other colonists, "exclusives."
Emancipists outnumbered exclusives through most of the early history of
Sydney and New South Wales.) Her last home was at Newtown, Sydney and
she died there on May 30, 1855, shortly after marking her 78th year.
She outlived all but two of her children. Her eldest son, Thomas,
established himself in New Zealand.

Sources and Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Reibey
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/reiby.htm NSW Registry of
Births, Deaths, and Marriages
http://www.ans.com.au/~janbrady/writ...nthesizing.pdf (Extract
from 1996 Metropolitan East Disadvantaged School Program)
http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/...vt/back01.html
Irvine, N, Mary Reiby: Molly Incognito, Library of Australian History,
1982.
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 2, Melbourne University Press,
1968.
200 Australian Women, Women's Redress Press, 1988.
The Making of Australia - Prison Port and Market Town, (Sydney, 1982).)
Dear cousin: the Reibey letters: 22 letters of Mary Reibey, her
children and their descendants 1792-1901. Hale & Irenmonger, 1995. The
Genealogical Society of Victoria Inc. Melbourne Victoria, 3000
Australia; email:
http://www.familyhistorybookshop.org.au/prod1593.htm

Jeff R. wrote:
Come clean Mike.
The *real* reason you acquired one of our $20s is the aeroplane on the
reverse, yes?
You _do_ have a Lawrence:
and a Kingsford-Smith:
I assume.

Yes, I originally acquired the note for the airplane, a topic that I
pursue. Researching the other side of the note, I learned about Mary
Reibey.

No, I do not have the others. Thanks for the pointers.

Mike M.

Thanks for posting it Mike. I noticed that you made brief mention of
the "Rum Corps".
Ignored by history, except in Australia, the famous (or is it infamous)
Captain William
Bligh of the Bounty fame was the governor of New South Wales at the
time when
rum was used as currency. A coup took place on January 26, 1808 (now
called Australia day)
and Bligh was imprisoned for 2 years. He was later exonerated and the
leader of
the "Rum Corps", Major Johnston, was found guilty of mutiny. Bligh and
mutiny seem
to be synonymous.

Jeff R. wrote: You _do_ have a Lawrence:
http://www.mendosus.com/currency/jpg/$20-paper-rev.jpg
and a Kingsford-Smith:
http://www.mendosus.com/currency/jpg/$20-paper-obv.jpg
I assume.

I got the Kingsford-Smith at the MSNS convention over Thanksgiving
(Nov. 23-25) Weekend.

Thanks, again, for the pointer.

Mike M.