Emily Mary Barton

portrait painter and poet, was born in England and received a classical education in England and France, learning both Greek and Latin from a tutor. She came to New South Wales in 1839 with her parents Major Edward Darvall and his first wife, Emily Godshall, née Johnson, two of her three brothers, sister Eliza (Kater) and another sister. The following year she married Robert Johnstone Barton in a dual ceremony, Eliza marrying Herman Henry Kater. Emily and Robert spent the next 30 years on their 66,000-acre property, Boree Nyrang, near Molong, with their children. After her husband died in 1863, she sold Boree Nyrang and moved to 'Rockend' at Gladesville, Sydney.

Emily Barton is best known as a poet. She published poems in the Illustrated Sydney News from 1853, including several prize-winning poems during the 1880s. Her earliest known poem, 'Song of Christmas to the Australian Emigrant', dated 1839, was published posthumously (Sydney 1910). The anonymous preface to this collection of 89 works stated: 'French and Italian were as familiar to her as her mother tongue; she was a fair Latin scholar and knew enough Greek and German to teach the rudiments [to her sons]'. She was also said to be an accomplished portrait painter, although no works in any public collections are known. In 1870, as an amateur, Mrs Barton exhibited a watercolour Half Figure at the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition. She died on 24 August 1909, aged 91.

Staff Writer.