Emily Mary (nee Darvall) Barton, 1817-1909

She was an English-born Australian poet who wrote poetry for most of her life, and was still publishing when she was 90. She was the grandmother of Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson.

Emily lived in Parramatta before marrying and beginning life as a pioneer settler at Molong where her 9 children were raised. In 1866, lot 47 became the property of Emily Mary Barton, a recently-widowed member of one of nineteenth-century Ryde's leading gentry families, the Darvalls. It was Emily Mary who gave the name 'Rockend' to the cottage and it remained her home for more than 40 years.