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Frances Leonora (Fanny) Macleay
(1793-1836) [1] Fanny was the eldest daughter of Alexander and Eliza Macleay's seventeen children.
In addition to household duties expected of eldest daughters in those times, Fanny undertook work which supported her father's interests in the natural world. After Fanny's death he acknowledged her as his "Companion in his pursuits". [2] Fanny carried out the curatorial duties for her father's collection of plant specimens, maintaining correspondence about loans and exchanges of collection items, and illustrating the specimens. She also provided botanical illustrations for her brother and other natural history scientists overseas.
On 25 June 1836, Fanny married Thomas Cudbert Harington (1798-1863), an assistant to Alexander Macleay. Her death six weeks later from an existing heart condition and a recent stomach disorder was an upsetting shock to everyone. There is a memorial to Frances Leonora Harington (née Macleay) at St James Church in Sydney.
The Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales hold the letters of Fanny Macleay.
- ^ Fanny to William: The letters of Frances Leonora Macleay 1812-1836. / Edited by Beverly Earnshaw and Joy Hughes. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust of NSW and Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, 1993.
- ^ museum:the Macleays, their collections and the search for order / by Robyn Stacey and Ashley Hay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.