# Maria Jane Scott > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Maria_Jane_Scott > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Maria_Jane_Scott.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Jane_Scott > Source revision: 1339774581 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata = ALL | dateformat = mdy | image = Sydney from Lavender Bay.jpg | caption = ''Sydney from Lavender Bay'' by Maria Jane Scott }} '''Maria Jane Barney Scott''' (1821 – April 30, 1899) was an Australian painter, lithographer, and novelist who published her books under the pseudonyms '''M.I.S.T.''' and '''Spray'''. The daughter of [George Barney](/source/George_Barney) and Portia Henrietta Peale Barney, Maria Jane Barney was born in 1821 in the [West Indies](/source/West_Indies), where her father had served for two decades. He was a military engineer of the [Corps of Royal Engineers](/source/Corps_of_Royal_Engineers) and son of the painter [Joseph Barney](/source/Joseph_Barney). The Barney family settled in [Sydney](/source/Sydney), Australia in 1835 and George Barney would later become [Surveyor General of New South Wales](/source/Surveyor_General_of_New_South_Wales) and [Lieutenant Governor](/source/Lieutenant_Governor) of the [Colony of North Australia](/source/North_Australia). Soon after their arrival, she took lessons from painter [Conrad Martens](/source/Conrad_Martens). She accompanied her father to [Van Diemen’s Land](/source/Van_Diemen's_Land) from 1836 to 1837, where she sketched locales including [Launceston](/source/Launceston%2C_Tasmania), [George Town](/source/George_Town%2C_Tasmania), and [Hobart Town](/source/Hobart). In 1838, she married Scottish-born [David Charles Frederick Scott](/source/David_Charles_Frederick_Scott), then a cavalry captain and painter and later a police magistrate in Sydney, who died in 1881.{{cite news |date=1881-05-19 |title=Obituary |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13474589 |accessdate=2025-11-07 |newspaper=[The Sydney Morning Herald](/source/The_Sydney_Morning_Herald) |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia |issue=13,458}} They would have two children, Edward Frederick (1840-71) and George Mitchell (1842-50).{{Cite book |last=Kerr |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Kerr |title=The dictionary of Australian artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870 |date=1992 |publisher=Oxford university press |isbn=978-0-19-553290-6 |location=Melbourne New York |pages=709-710}} She began exhibiting her work in 1854 at the [Australian Museum Exhibition](/source/Australian_Museum) and was awarded a medal for works she sent to the 1862 [London International Exhibition](/source/1862_International_Exhibition). Her landscapes were praised and bear the influence of Martens. She began publishing books under the pseudonyms M.I.S.T. and Spray in 1871. [Joan Kerr](/source/Joan_Kerr) suggests her books were "probably written partly as an escape from the desolation she felt at the sudden death of her only surviving son, Edward." She published a series of works that have been described as "featuring orphans or stolen children, villainous adults defrauding them of their inheritance, and saintly young people dying." Scott and her husband founded the Lisgar Training Home for Domestic Servants in 1870 in [Ashfield](/source/Ashfield%2C_New_South_Wales), which moved next to their home in [Paddington](/source/Paddington%2C_New_South_Wales) in 1875.{{Cite web |title=Lisgar Training Home for Domestic Servants |url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/lisgar-training-home-for-domestic-servants/ |access-date=2025-10-24 |website=Find and Connect |language=en-AU |archive-date=2025-11-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251117095801/https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/entity/lisgar-training-home-for-domestic-servants/ |url-status=live }} Later known as the Protestant Female Training School for Domestic Servants, it continued to operate after her death.{{cite news |date=1899-08-30 |title=Bethany Deaconess' Institution |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14240378 |accessdate=2025-11-07 |newspaper=[The Sydney Morning Herald](/source/The_Sydney_Morning_Herald) |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia |issue=19,177}} == Bibliography == * ''Annine: A Novel''.  1 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1871{{Cite web |title=Author: Maria Jane Scott |url=https://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=3930 |access-date=2025-10-22 |website=www.victorianresearch.org |archive-date=2025-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250616221332/https://victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=3930 |url-status=live }} * ''A Brother or Lover? A Sister of Bride?: and, The Lights and Shadows of Hazelglen''.  1 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1872. * ''Pearl and Willie : A Tale'' Sydney : John Woods & Co. Ltd , 1873 (as Spray){{Cite web |last=Austlit |title=Maria Jane Scott {{!}} AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A5095 |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=www.austlit.edu.au |language=en |archive-date=2025-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250523011307/https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A5095 |url-status=live }} * ''A Many Colored Bubble: A Tale''.  1 vol.  London: T. C. Newby, 1874. * ''Not So Ugly: A Novel''.  1 vol.  London: Morgan and Hebron, 1874. == References == {{reflist}} * {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Maria}} Category:Created via preloaddraft Category:1821 births Category:1899 deaths Category:Australian women painters Category:Australian artists Category:Australian women novelists Category:19th-century women painters --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Maria Jane Scott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Jane_Scott) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Jane_Scott?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.