The Willis family

New to our reference collection is The Willis Family History, compiled by Shirley Doolan, a privately published monograph. It gives new information on two influential figures in the early development of Manly: Thomas Willis and his brother, Reverend Robert S Willis, who was minister of St Matthew’s Church. The family history goes back to Cumberland, England, where their father, Joseph Scaife Willis was born in 1808. Joseph was briefly the occupant of Fairlight House, circa 1875-6. Joseph’s wife, Janet Speir, was from Renfrewshire, Scotland. The book contains photos of each of them.
Robert Willis was a member of the first class to graduate from the BA course at Sydney University, in 1856. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1865, and ministered at Shoalhaven, where he met his future wife, Julia MacKenzie, who is commemorated by a memorial in St Matthew’s Church. He was minister there 1876-1894, and was a significant landowner in the Manly and Manly Vale area.
Thomas Willis was a shipping agent and insurance agent, with offices in Pitt Street, Sydney, and was one of the signatories to the 1876 petition which successfully lobbied for the establishment of Manly as a municipality.
It’s good to see such well researched family history being made available.

New Sydney website

After several years of planning, the Dictionary of Sydney website is now live, at www.dictionaryofsydney.org
The website is well worth exploring. A simple browse of the entries gives an indication of the wealth of information contained in the Dictionary. You can search for artefacts, buildings, events, natural features, organisations, people, places (including short histories of a suburb) or structures. From what I have seen, the entries are clearly written, usually between 500-1000 words and have been tightly edited. So far, the content amounts to more than 600,000 words. There is a good selection of maps which can be browsed.
The Dictionary is bound to burgeon in time into something gigantic, so the structure has been kept fairly simple, allowing it to accommodate material indefinitely. It will be interesting to see what it becomes in the future, but it has made an encouraging beginning.