Barbara Baynton

Australian writer (1857–1929)

Barbara Janet Baynton (née Lawrence; 4 June 1857 – 28 May 1929) was an Australian writer known primarily for her short stories about life in the bush. She published the collection Bush Studies (1902) and the novel Human Toll (1907), as well as writing for The Bulletin and The Sydney Morning Herald. She was a shrewd manager of her second husband's estate, owning properties in Melbourne and London. She acquired the title Lady Headley from her third marriage to Rowland Allanson Winn, 5th Baron Headley, but never wrote under that name.

Baynton was born in 1857 at Scone, New South Wales, the daughter of Irish bounty immigrants, John Lawrence and Elizabeth Ewart. However, she claimed to have been born in 1862 to Penelope Ewart and Captain Robert Kilpatrick, of the Bengal Light Cavalry.

The fictional narrative of her birth gave her "entrée to polite circles as a governess" and, in 1880, she married Alexander Frater, the son of her employers. and Barbara moved to Sydney and commenced divorce proceedings. A decree absolute was granted 4 March 1890. On 5 March 1890, she married Dr Thomas Baynton, a retired surgeon aged 70 years who had literary friends. Beginning in December 1896, she began contributing short stories to the Bulletin. Six of these were published in 1902 in London by Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd under the title of Bush Studies because Mrs Baynton had been unable to find a publisher for them in Sydney. Alfred Stephens, a close friend, reviewed the book in the Bulletin and stated: 'So precise, so complete, with such insight into detail and such force of statement, it ranks with the masterpieces of realism in any language. Percival Serle, however, found that The building up of detail, however, is at times overdone, and lacking humorous relief, the stories tend to give a distorted view of life in the back blocks. Baynton's husband died on 10 June 1904 and left his entire estate to her. She invested in the stock market, bought and sold antiques, and collected black opals from Lightning Ridge. Her son Robert Frater had been on the staff of the Sydney Sun, and Alec Hay Frater was an artist; both enlisted with the British Army. In February 1921, Baynton married her third husband Rowland Allanson Winn, 5th Baron Headley; she was subsequently styled "Lady Headley". He was a convert to Islam, but she did not adopt his religion. In 1925, the couple separated and she returned to Melbourne where she lived in the suburb of Toorak. The split was reputedly due to her husband's refusal of the throne of Albania. Baynton died in Melbourne on 28 May 1929. She was survived by her third husband and her two sons and daughter by the first marriage. Her daughter Penny Frater married politician and journalist Henry Gullett; their son, that is, Baynton's grandson Jo Gullett also entered politics.