The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

New faces

2012
'Constance Kent, the murderess', State Library of Victoria Acc No: H41038
The new people in the Dictionary of Sydney are a mixed bunch indeed. Apart from the City of Sydney mayors I've already blogged about, we have a few other new faces. Noeline Kyle has contributed a fascinating piece on a woman known in Australia as Ruth Kaye, formerly Constance Kent, who served 20 years for child murder before emigrating and spending the rest of her life as a nurse and public servant. The Road Murder of 1860, to which she confessed in 1865, remained a cause celebre in England, but Ruth lived quietly in Australia to the age of 100. William Lawson is another of our new faces, although a better known one. Soldier, explorer, landowner and politician, he became known as 'Old Ironbark'. Tony Dawson has laid his long and successful life out for us. Marian Egan, born Mary Anne Cheers, is a welcome addition to our small but interesting number of colonial women. Written by her great-great-great niece, Annette Lemercier, this entry tells the story of a woman who rose from a convict family to become the wife of the Mayor of Sydney, Daniel Egan, only to perish in the wreck of the Dunbar. It's a tumultuous tale. The other biography added this time round is that of Maurice O'Connell, soldier and administrator, who married William Bligh's daughter Mary. Samantha Frappell has written about O'Connell and about his lavish house Tarmons, which later became the nucleus of St Vincent's Hospital and College.  
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