Blyth, William

Confectionery and pastry cook who was the proprietor of popular refreshment rooms in Pitt Street between 1843 and 1850. Born in England around 1805, he arrived in Sydney in 1833 with confectioner Thomas Dunsdon and his family, and managed their business opposite the Bank of Australia on lower George Street. Blyth married Dunsdon's sister Hephzibah in 1839 and took over the business in his own right in 1840. In 1843 he opened the new store on Pitt Street next to the Victoria Theatre. He sold the business in 1850 and established an Italian grocery at Haymarket. They moved to Victoria after this, where Hepzibah died in 1880. Blyth returned to Sydney and was living with his son Alfred in Marrickville at the time of his death in 1895.