BOOTH, Eady
1848 - 1931 (82 years) Has 10 ancestors and 30 descendants in this family tree.-
Name BOOTH, Eady Birth 28 Dec 1848 Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England 
Gender Female Census 30 Mar 1851 Handsworth, Middlesex, England - Those living at 150 Booth Street on the night of the census in 1851 were:-
Isaac Booth, Head, Married, 41, Hatter, born Middlesex. Catherine Booth, Wife, 37, born Middlesex. Martha Booth, Daughter, 6, born Middlesex. Catherine Booth, Daughter, 4, born Middlesex. Harriet Booth, Daughter, 2 (twin), born Wolverhampton. Ea dy Booth, Daughter, 2 (twin), born Wolverhampton. Isaac Booth, Son, 3months, born Handsworth.
1851 England, Wales & Scotland
Occupation 14 Dec 1876 Learmonth, Colony of Victoria Dressmaker Legal 8 Mar 1907 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Domestic Troubles - POLICE COURTS.
CITY COURT. Friday, 8th March.
DOMESTIC TROUBLES.
Before Messrs Murphy, P.M., Wilson, Douglas, and Turner, J's.P.
Edie Hart was the complainant in a case against her husband, William Hart, on a charge of leaving her with-out maintenance.
Complainant stated that they had been married 30 years, but they parted seven years ago owing to the hus-band's cruelty. He had paid her £1 per week until two years' ago, when he had got out of work, and reduced the payments to 12s 6d. He had not paid a shilling since November last year. He had worked at a cyanide plant at Linton, but when she had last heard of him he was enjoying a holiday. Mr Murphy— Do you know what he is earning? Mrs Hart— l don't. He is partnership with his brother in the cyanide business. He found money to buy the plant. But how have you earned your own living?— By dressmaking, but I had to give it up owing to ill health. I've had three infants to look after. The bench made an order that the husband should pay 10s per week for the maintenance of his wife, and to find one surety of £5O within seven days for the fulfillment of the order, in default three months' imprisonment.
Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924), Saturday 9 March 1907, page 3
Misc 1919 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Inventor of Dye Stuff and the mode of producing it. Occupation 28 Oct 1921 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Dye Maker - Manufacture of Dyes. THE INDUSTRY IN BALLARAT. A SMALL, BUT SUCCESSFUL.
While we in Ballarat (writes the Courier) have been looking round for new industries and all agreeing that it, is of the utmost importance to get them, we have overlooked one of local origin, which contains the richest possibilities, perhaps. of any that have been sugested. Out on the eastern outskirts of Bailarat a little old lady. Mrs. Eady Hart. now 73 years cof age. has for many years been experimenting on the
production of dyes from local plants and ti trees. and has secured results which are really marvellous. She comes of a family whhich has won distinction in the is past. Her great grandfather was Rev. Abraham Booth, D.D., of London: her grandfather 'Mr. Isaac Booth, entered the service of the Bank of England at the age of 17, and rose to the position of governor of that famous institution. Her uncle, Mr. Abraham Booth, was a distinguished chemist. Her father came out to the diggings in the early days, and of those stirring times Mrs. Hart can tell most interesting stories. None of these, however, can equal that: of her own life. She reared a large family on the proceeds of a patent fire kindler invented by her, and a. patent food prepared from potatoes was an other of her ventures. A passing botanist, years ago, told her if she could .discover a wood stain from a certain material her fortune was made. She dis- , covered it, but the :fortune unfortunately went elsewhere-or, at any rate it did not come her way. She did not lose courage. She took arms against a sea of troubles and, undeterred by the handicaps of poverty, pursued her endeavors to wrest from nature that wealth which she felt confident was there to gather. With the most primitive appliances, but with a keen brain, busy fingers and dauntless courage, she persevered at her task, and Hart's Royal Dyes materialised from imsagination in to fact. Lamenting her inability to gor far afield, and restricted in her selection of materials to experiment on, she has prepared a series of colors of a range and beauty that astonish not only the average citizen, but the expert. She is careful not to claim that they are "fast," but certainly a great many of them are, and they have stood most searching of tests. The colors have a beautiful softness and retain their sheen in the most , remarkable way. They can be used alike on silk, wool and cotton. Soft greys, glowing yellows, greens and a whole variety of tints which most people could not put a name to, she has to show, used on materials of different kinds. A good black is said to be something manufacturers are prepared to fall over each other for. Mrs. Hart has a black which has stood the test of an acid which has eaten away the fabric without harming the color. These are all vegetable dyes it is to be noted. The trouble was. however, to convince other people that there was money in it. Considering what an enormous industry dyeing is, what millions of pounds are invested in it, what distinguished chemists are engaged in it, it is not strange that people found it hard to believe that an old lady living in a little place. near Canadian had produced vegetable dyes surpassing in quality and lower in price thaln the aniline dyes which of late have almost monopolised the market. So all her endeavors were fruitless Two sons returned from the war incapacitated for life. it is feared. and the prospects might have appalled the stoutest heart. Then an article sent by Miss Annie Evans to Work and Energy attracted the notice of the editor. Mr. Gavan Reilly. and he, meeting a friend, Mr. G. C. Calvert. on the look out for opportunities to open up such new
industries, an interview with Mrs. Hart was arranged and now, subject to certain preliminaries which seem easy of settlement, a company is to be floated which is to launch the dyes upon the world, and it is hoped upon a career of conquest. The idea is to have 5000 £5 shares. The plant need not be an expensive one, though Mrs. Hart's doimestic pots, kettles and tins. which have done service so far. will need to be replaced with something much more protentious. It is hoped to establish the industrv in Ballarat, where it has its origin. Mrs. Hart is to get her share in the company. and to be retained as an adviser. Anyone who would like to see what the dyes look like can see samples at Miss Evan's shop at the corner of Victoria and Humffray-streets. and they are well worth seeing. One singularly beautiful sample shows the henna dye now a fashionable color, and all of them are magnificent. It looks as if there is a gold mine in these dyes better than any Ballarat has seen. and it would be a pity if Ballarat lost it.
Horsham Times (Vic. : 1882 - 1954), Friday 28 October 1921, page 2
Reference Number P1582 _FSFTID LYKC-FLL _UID BD8BDB20F5D441A98F6FBA571DAF8A1671DD Death 28 Feb 1931 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia - HART.- On the 1st March, 1931, at her residence, Young street, Ballarat, Eady, loving mother of Mrs. Kittelty of Chapman street, Sunshine, aged 82 years. "Called Home."
Sunshine Advocate (Vic. : 1924 - 1954), Friday 6 March 1931, page 8
Burial 2 Mar 1931 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Address:
Ballarat New Cemetery
HART EADY
Area :COFEF
Church Of England F
Section :11
Row :
Grave :51
Person ID I1576 My Genealogy Last Modified 29 Jan 2026
Father BOOTH, Issac, b. Jan 1810 d. 14 Nov 1884, Learmonth, Victoria, Australia (Age 74 years)Mother RAINALS, Catherine Elvin, b. 8 Dec 1813, Middlesex, England d. 19 Mar 1908, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (Age 94 years)Marriage 5 Dec 1840 Bishopsgate, London, England
Saint Botolph
Family ID F499 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family 
HART, William, b. Abt 1853 d. 1929 (Age 76 years) Marriage 14 Dec 1876 Learmonth, Victoria, Australia - HART–BOOTH.–On the 14th December, at Wickliffe Church, Learmonth, by the Rev. M. F. Cahill, William, son of James Hart, of Ballarat, to Eady, daughter of Isaac Booth, of Learmonth.
Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924), Wednesday 20 December 1876, page 2
Children 1. HART, Eady Emily Polwarth 2. HART, Harriet Booth 3. BIRCH, Thelma, b. Ballarat, Victoria, Australia 4. HART, Oscar Sommerville, b. 1879, Learmonth, Colony of Victoria d. 18 Jun 1943, Sorrento, Victoria, Australia (Age 64 years)5. HART, Florence Mary, b. 1879, Learmonth, Colony of Victoria d. Yes, date unknown6. HART, Frederick James, b. 1880 d. Yes, date unknown 7. HART, Percival Booth, b. 1882 d. Yes, date unknown 8. HART, Catherine Sophia May, b. 1884 d. Yes, date unknown 9. HART, Horatio Rainals, b. Abt 1887 d. 25 Sep 1953 (Age 66 years) Family ID F669 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 26 Oct 2026
- Those living at 150 Booth Street on the night of the census in 1851 were:-
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Notes
The Australian Dictionary of Biography [Online Edition] states:-
HART, EADY (1848-1931), dyemaker, was born on 28 December 1848 at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, second daughter of Isaac Booth, hatter, and his wife Catherine Elvin, late Payne, née Rainals. Eady's paternal grandfather (Isaac) was a gov ernor of the Bank of England, and an uncle Abraham Booth a distinguished chemist. Lured by gold, her family migrated to Victoria, probably arriving in the Francis Henty in May 1854. Eady became a dressmaker. On 14 December 1876 at Wycliff Churc h of England, Learmonth, she married English-born William Hart, later an engineer with the Ballarat Gas Co. They had four sons and four daughters before he deserted her.
After her children had grown up, Eady augmented her pension with sewing and millinery and by fostering four girls and two boys; they thought this tiny, gifted woman 'one in a million'. Thriftily, using potatoes, she created a blancmange-like bre akfast food. She moved often at Ballarat, working also as a taxidermist. Creative, energetic and well organized, she found time to work for the war effort during World War I, in which two of her sons were severely wounded. Experimenting with nat ural products, Eady made firelighters from the pulverized trunks of grass trees (Xanthorrhoea australis, then known as 'blackboys'). The children hawked them, snowball size, in packs of a dozen. But her great success came from experimenting wit h natural dyes. Grass trees, when boiled with washing soda and lime, produced a brilliant gold dye, while the various parts of other indigenous plants added a great range of colours.
From 1914 to 1919 Eady struggled with the formalities involved in patenting her natural processes-others used poisonous chemicals. She hoped to provide employment at Ballarat, especially for returned soldiers, but was frustrated when a supporter , who had joined herself to the patent application, foiled attempts to form a company. Meanwhile, on her kitchen stove Eady perfected Hart's Royal Dyes and in October 1921 mounted a sensational public display of soft greys, glowing yellows, a st rong black and a wonderful henna. Articles in Work and Energy (England) and the London Daily Express attracted attention. By then, patents had been achieved in Australia, England, India and the United States of America. When entrepreneurs approa ched her about floating a company, and Ballarat identities offered support, Eady mortgaged her house, formed a syndicate and built a substantial laboratory at Canadian Gully to demonstrate the practicality of her process. Hart's Australian Dye s was incorporated late in 1921, and a big demand for shares followed a display on many fabrics of colours more natural and flower-like than those of rivals. Later, on Mair Street, a factory was built with the hope of reducing German dominance o f the Australian market.
Despite technical success, the company failed. Although Eady won awards at the British Empire Exhibition, London, in 1924, she was ruined. An earlier fear that she would end up in a charitable institution, like many inventors, proved accurate. S he died on 28 February 1931 at Ballarat District Hospital and was buried in the new Ballarat cemetery. Her eight children and six foster children survived her.
Select Bibliography
W. Bate, Lucky City (Melb, 1978); Ballarat Courier, 26 Oct 1921, p 2, 21 Nov 1921, p 2, 17 Dec 1921, p 2, 22 Dec 1921, p 2, 10 July 1922, p 2, 13 July 1922, p 2, 15 July 1922, p 2, 18 July 1922, p 2, 27 July 1922, p 2; E. Hart's specimens and sc rapbooks (Gold Museum, Sovereign Hill, Victoria); family information.
Author: Weston Bate
Print Publication Details: Weston Bate, 'Hart, Eady (1848 - 1931)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, Melbourne University Press, 2005, pp 165-166.