FL14369458

Christmas Day 1825, Mary Cover Lawry died after giving birth to her daughter, Mary Australia.353
When news of her death was received in Sydney an obituary was printed in the Sydney Gazette, a
special service was held in Parramatta Chapel built by her husband where the service was
conducted by Reverend Samuel Leigh. Reverend Samuel Marsden also preached a sermon in which
he referred to Mary Lawry whom he had known ''from her infancy; and that when the Parramatta
Sunday School was established, she was indefatigable in attempting to promote the best interests
of the children''.354

Lawry married a widow, Eliza White, nee Molyneux, in 1829 four years after Mary's death,
and she brought up his children. She was the widow of Joseph White and had one child, Eliza
Fenwick White, who had been born in 1816 and died as an infant.355 He remained carrying out his
ministry in England until 1843 when he was appointed superintendent of Wesleyan missions in New
Zealand. In 1854 Walter Lawry retired because of ill health and went to Parramatta. He died on
30 March 1859 and was buried in the Wesleyan Cemetery, Ross and Buller Streets, Parramatta. The
Walter Lawry Methodist Memorial Park is named in his honour.356 His wife, Elizabeth Lawry, died
in New Zealand on 9 December 1877 and was buried in Auckland.

Walter and Mary Lawry had four children: Elizabeth Lawry who was born and died in 1820,
Henry Hassall Lawry (1821-1906), Elizabeth Ann Lawry born in 1823 and Mary Australia Lawry
born in 1825.

353 Reeson, Margaret, Currency Lass, p.250.
354 Ibid., p.255.
355 Procter, Peter, The Annotated Hassall Children, Research Notes and References, p.41.
356 Claughton, S.G., ''Lawry, Walter (1793-1859)'', Australian Dictionary of Biography 1788-1850, Vol.1,
p.95.

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