Great Expectations: Sydney College 1835-50

Great Expectations: Sydney College 1835-50
A sketch of Sydney College, artist unknown

The National Centre of Biography is undertaking a biographical study of the 843 boys who attended Sydney College, the forerunner of Sydney Grammar, during the years of its existence, 1835-1850.

In 1992 Peter Yeend, archivist of The King’s School, Parramatta, produced a register of the Sydney College students, which is available on the Sydney Grammar website. As well as noting the years the students attended the college, Yeend provided information about their parents, including if they were government servants (convicts), their place of residence, religion, comments about the boys’ made by the headmaster while they were at school, and their adult occupation and spouse’s name if known.

Yeend had planned to continue his research of the students to discover more about their adult careers and their spousal connections. For whatever reason an updated version of the register was never published. But what exists is nonetheless an extremely valuable resource and we are using it as the basis of our study. We are also going that step that Yeend had wanted to and attempting to find out about the students’ adult lives and their spouse/s.

A record is being created for each student (and their partner/s) in People Australia and we are adding as much information about them as we can locate.

The following is a list of maps, charts, and graphs that have been created from the data. They are updated regularly as new records are added or updated.

Click here for a list of all the Sydney College boys that have been added to our websites.

Sydney College students miscellanous graphs

Sydney College students family relationships graph

Sydney College students birth location

Sydney College students death location

Sydney College relationships of students and entities

Updated:  26 June 2019/Responsible Officer:  Head of School/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications