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Frances Marian Noblett's childhood home in Newtown

Francis Susan Marian Noblett was born in Sydney in 1849 and orphaned in 1851, following the death of her father from a lingering illness in January and the accidental drowning of her mother in March. The 2 year old infant, known as Marian Noblett, was fostered growing up in this comfortable home in Newtown, Sydney. The inscription on the photo in the handwriting of one of Marian's granddaughters reads, in part, "the house where Grandma lived when she was a little girl". The home was called "Retreat Cottage". When she lived with her parents they lived in Pitt Street, Surry Hills. Then she was raised in "Retreat Cottage" Newtown, we believe in the household of one the Newton brothers, her legal custodians. It is believed that the Newtons moved to Rockhampton establishing their drapery business there, and that Marian went with them. She found employment as a domestic servant with the Little Family who took up "Rosedale" Station, between Rockhampton and Bundaberg, Queensland. Here she met and married James Murray and they lived on "Green Vale" a few miles to the north of "Rosedale".

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