- Born
- 4 June 1857
Scone, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 28 May 1929
Toorak, Victoria, Australia
Summary
Baynton was born at Scone, New South Wales, a seventh and possibly illegitimate child. She was educated at home, later working as a housekeeper and governess. She married Alex Frater in 1880, living in financial hardship in rural NSW. Divorcing Frater after discovering he was having an affair with her niece, she married Thomas Baynton, a retired Sydney doctor. Her wealthier circumstances enabled her to write. A collection of six short stories, Bush Studies, was published in 1902 by Duckworth in England, where she had travelled after failing to find an Australian publisher. After Thomas Baynton died in 1904 she led an affluent life in Australia and England, socialising with many well-known writers and celebrities. She married an English baron in 1921, but soon left him, returning to Australia in 1924. Baynton's only novel, Human Toll, was published as part of Duckworth's Colonial Library in 1907. Bush Studies earned great critical respect and Duckworth republished the stories from the collection, together with two new ones, as Cobbers in 1917.