Mary Hyde

Who was Mary Hyde?

Mary Lord nee Hyde in the period 1855 to 1859 sued the Commissioners of the City of Sydney and won compensation for the sum of over £15,600 for the inundation of her property at Botany.

Hyde is noted for her pertinacity. Despite in late 1855 partially winning her case through the New South Wales courts, Mary appealed and three years later in early 1859 won fully after taking her case as far as the Privy Council in England, the final court of appeal then available to a British subject living in the Colony of New South Wales.

In 1859, in the 70-year-old Colony of New South Wales, her court case, although largely ignored by historians, was nevertheless an achievement: women did not have the vote; and Hyde lived in a male-dominated society governed by British law where women had little power. Married women had no power at all, and Mary was only able to sue as being a widow she was no longer married.

Having experienced life as a woman in Victorian society, single, married and widowed, Mary became concerned with what today would be called a feminist issue.