Summary heading

Career within Commonwealth

Jane Mason Barton, usually known as Jeanie Barton, was born in London in 1851 of Scottish parents; engineer and hotel owner/keeper David Ross and Euphemia Ross.  As a child, she emigrated with her family to Newcastle, Australia, where she spent her childhood.

In Newcastle on 28 December 1877 she married Edmund Barton who, in 1901, became the first Prime Minister of Australia.  Jeanie Barton was a strong supporter of Federation and in 1899 was vice-president of the Sydney Women’s Federal League.  In 1900 she accompanied her husband and the Australian delegation to London to see the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill through the British Parliament.  Jeanie Barton shared the platform with Edmund Barton and the Governor-General and Lady Hopetoun on 1 January 1901 at the inauguration of the Commonwealth ceremony at Centennial Park, Sydney. 

During Edmund Barton’s term as Prime Minister (1901-03), Jeanie Barton primarily lived in Sydney raising their four sons and two daughters while Federal Parliament sat in Melbourne, however, she did accompany Barton on a visit to England in 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII, a tour involving many other official events.  While in Britain Edmund Barton was knighted (GCMG) and as a result Jeanie Barton became Lady Barton.

From 1912 to 1914, Lady Barton was founding president of the Sydney-based ‘Queens Club’.  She died in Sydney in 1938, outliving Sir Edmund Barton by eighteen years.

Links to other Commonwealth Persons

28 December 1877 – 7 January 1920: CP 710, The Rt Hon Sir Edmund BARTON PC, GCMG, KC, QC            

Publications

End notes

Sources

Geoffrey Bolton, Edmund Barton; The One Man for the Job, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 2000

John Reynolds, Edmund Barton, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1948