Mary Ann was born to John Byrne and Mary (nee Wall) on 16 May 1868. Mary Ann was one of eight siblings and one of four girls. Mary Byrne died in 1870 during childbirth and John Byrne died in 1878; the oldest daughter Catherine at 16 and the older brothers took over the job of parenting the younger siblings. The four sisters Catherine, Johanna, Mary Ann and Maggie as well as their future sister-in-law, Elizabeth Spry, journeyed to Palmerston, arriving in February 1890 to attend the marriage of Elizabeth and their brother William. In 1894 Mary Ann starred in a local theatre production and began courtship with the Northern Territory Times editor, George Washington Mayhew. In 1895, when Mary Ann was 27, she was one of the 82 women who enrolled to vote after the franchise was granted to South Australian and Territory women in 1894. Her occupation was listed as "married woman", yet in reality she still had two weeks until her wedding to George. George and Mary Ann lived on an agricultural property at Rapid Creek and they had one son, John George Seaton, commonly known as Jack. A cyclone hit in January 1897; Mary Ann and baby Jack sheltered under a table at her sister's house. In 1899 Mary Ann and Jack left for Wyndham; George soon followed with the hope that the weather would improve his slowly deteriorating health. In 1904 George returned to Darwin without Mary Ann and Jack, as the Perth climate did not agree with him. He died in Darwin in April 1907; Mary Ann never returned to the Territory and she died at Subiaco in 1927.,
Subject
Women,
Suffrage,
Northern Territory,
History,
Related materials
James, Barbara. Occupation : Citizen. The Story of the Northern Territory Women and the Vote (1894 - 1896), Darwin : Barbara James, 1995. NTC 324.623 JAME,
Related links
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3329804 ['Family notices', Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 28 June 1895, p. 2.],
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4270574 ['Electoral Revision Court', Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 7 September, 1900, p.4.],