Mary Harley is our only Scots Grandma. Mary was the eldest child of Robert and Mary Harley née Downie and she had five brothers and one sister. Mary was born at Carriden in the Fife and by the time she married her father was working as the excise officer at Torryburn. The banns for Mary’s marriage were called at St Giles Gray Friars Edinburgh in the week preceding her marriage to John Smith at St. Cuthbert’s Midlothian, Edinburgh, Scotland on the 27th July 1787 when she was twenty one. John was the third child of Robert and Frances Smith née Smiton of Torryburn, Fife. Two of his siblings died as infants. There are family legends with the Smith family, that they were strong loyalists and fought for Bonny Prince Charlie that their original surname wasn’t Smith and they changed it to escape the wrath of the English. You get clues like they called their farm Torry Burn after the village where John was born. Another family name they used for their properties was Birnam Wood which is in the Highlands of Scotland. The Scotch had a very difficult time under English domination in the 1700s: if you spoke the language, wore the kilt or played the bagpipes — imprisonment for 5 years, and transportation for 7 years for the second offence. Some of the Smith family were supposed to know but adopted the motto Leave the dead to sleep.

Mary’s eldest child Robert was born on the 19th April 1788 and baptised on 26th April 1788; Mary was born on 31st December 1790 and baptised on 1st January 1791 [1]; John arrived on the 27th March 1793 and he was baptised on the 30th March 1793. Mary and John senior must have been living quite close to the church to be having these very new babies baptised so young — Mary wasn’t a day old and John’s three days old. James the last of the Edinburgh babies was born on 6th September 1795 and baptised on the 19th September 1795. While Mary was busy with her young family John and two other young friends had heard of an opportunity to go to the new colony at Port Jackson for work and the opportunity to get land to farm. So they applied for a contract to build a corn mill at Parramatta.


The three young families successfully had their contracts accepted to work in the colony of Port Jackson and sailed with their young families on the convict transport the Barlow that became a drawn out journey because of the Napoleonic War. The Barlow was requested for support during the voyage and there was a threatened mutiny by the convicts. When the ship finally arrived at Port Jackson the official that arranged the contract had returned to England and the government gave them help and supplies and land leases in the Hills District to set up farming. The life was hard and people had to be self-sufficient, their homes were built from materials available on their land — local timber, stringy bark for roofing, plaster composed of soil mixed with cow-dung and chopped grass. This plaster was smoothed over the walls and when dry, white washed with lime, or apple tree ash mixed with sour milk. For safety’s sake they all lived fairly close together. Mary and John had only lived in Scotland until the voyage and Mary appears to have had a fairly broad Scotch accent consequently people didn’t always know what she was saying, so she would have relied on her family and friends for company. In December 1799 Peter was born and he died the following April. Peter was buried on the farm as far as we can work out, but when St. John’s Cemetery Parramatta was founded in 1812 the family purchased a vault and Peter’s remains were moved to it. A daughter Frances arrived in 1802 — a time that Rowland Hassall described as the country side being in great distress. Wheat was very dear and farmers were starving for bread. Reverend Samuel Marsden told Rowland Hassall the Smiths and the McDougalls existed on barley cakes [2].

Torry Burn Reserve, 2009.

The soldiers and the Rum Rebellion didn’t make it easy for the Scottish farmers. They found Governor Bligh more sympathetic to their plight and were very upset when Governor Bligh was overthrown. Two more sons William 2nd February 1805 and Andrew 1806 were born in these difficult years.

The army imprisoned Mary’s husband John for a month for standing up for Governor Bligh as were his friends Andrew McDougall and George Suttor in 1809. Mary had to run the farm with the help of the boys in these troublesome times. The children were all educated and learnt to read and write and debate as we know from their letters and diaries that have survived and are in the New South Wales library.

The eldest girl Mary married James Elder, a South Seas Missionary, in 1808 and spent some time with him in the mid-Pacific on a mission station in this time a ships captain fell madly in love with the beautiful young woman and committed suicide when his love was not returned — a most upsetting state of affairs. The mission was not a success and James returned to Parramatta to make a life as a trader closer to his wife’s family. James went on to become a Shire Councillor of Parramatta Council and for a while his house was a temporary Council Chambers [3].

Mary Smith Senior lived until 26th August 1835 and is buried in the family vault at St John’s Cemetery, but we have no surviving records or drawings of her or her activities in those twenty-five years. Mary had 50 grandchildren.