page_title: Kirribilli House
section_title: The Lawry family
hierarchical_section_title: Kirribilli House / History / The Lawry family
caption_attribution_description: English: Kirribilli House 1920
context_page_description: Kirribilli House is the secondary official residence of the Prime Minister of Australia. Located in the Sydney harbourside suburb of Kirribilli, New South Wales, the house is at the far eastern end of Kirribilli Avenue. It is one of two official Prime Ministerial residences, the primary official residence being The Lodge in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The house, gardens and grounds are listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List.
  Scott Morrison currently uses the house as his primary residence.
context_section_description: The next residents of Kirribilli House from about 1858 were Thomas and Esther Lawry. Thomas Lawry was born in 1821. He was employed by the Ordnance Department in Sydney at a young age. and remained there for the rest of his life. He was also appointed as a magistrate by the Governor. He married Esther Hughes in 1858 and the couple had two children. In 1859 the birth of a daughter at Sophienberg was recorded in the newspaper so it appears that the house continued to be called by this name after the Lawrys purchased it.
  Esther Lawry’s maiden name was Esther Matilda Hosking Hughes and she was the step granddaughter of Samuel Terry the very wealthy convict entrepreneur. In 1858 Esther inherited a considerable amount of money from her grandmother Rosetta Terry.
  In 1865 Thomas Lawry died at the age of 44. The death notice records that the name of the house was still Sophienberg. Two years later in 1867 Esther married James Taylor. who was the Commissary-General of Ordnance. This couple then lived in the House with Esther’s two children one of whom was Thomas Terry Trewyn Lawry. In 1891 James Taylor died. By this time the house had been named “Kirribilli” and was located in Campbell Street as the map on the left shows. In 1900 Esther died. and the house was left to her son Thomas Terry Trewyn Lawry.
  Thomas Terry Trewyn Lawry was born in 1864. He seemed to have rather poor health and did not marry. In 1907 at the age of only 42 he died of heart failure. As he had no children he left his property to relatives and others. He made a very complex will leaving Kirribilli house to several people one of whom was Laura Lamotte. Laura married William Donald McCrea in 1909. Laura and William lived in the House for some time but she then wanted to sell the property. There was some disagreement about the sale with the other beneficiaries and the matter was taken to the Equity Court. The Court resolved that the property should be sold and it was put on the market in 1919. The House was bought by Arthur Wigram Allen who planned to subdivide the land. In 1920 he produced a brochure with a photo of the house and the planned subdivision. 
  There was public outcry about the sale of the house and the Government under the then Prime Minister Billy Hughes decided to resume it. The property has remained in Government ownership since then.
caption: Kirribilli House in 1920 just before it was resumed by the Australian Government
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