In early April 1863 — it must have been around the 7th of the month — Rev John Allen Manton and his family packed up their belongings in their house at 113 Prince Street, The Rocks and moved to Newington House at Silverwater.

The house they had been renting in Prince Street no longer exists. The street and its 280 houses were demolished in the late 1920s to make way for the southern approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

When the Mantons moved to Newington House, the repairs to the mansion and other buildings that had been started in January were not yet finished. The work would continue through April and May 1863, which must have made settling in quite difficult.

It is likely that the Manton family and their belongings travelled to Newington House by ferry up the Parramatta River. At this time there was only a rough track running for one and a half miles from Parramatta Road at Auburn, skirting the Duck River marshes and through the 1,200 acre Newington Estate to Newington House. The mansion was close to the river and had its own wharf. The ferry would remain the most convenient way to reach the new school for the next seventeen years.

David Roberts
College Archivist