Esther Telfer Smith

Role: Daughter of Esther Jane Telfer and John Smith

Born: 27 Sep 1870, Tungkillo, SA
Died: 5 May 1896 (consumption), buried Nyngan General Cemetery NSW

Father: John Smith (~1827–1895)
Mother: Esther Jane Telfer (1834–1909)

Photo

Esther Kent (née Smith) — formal studio portrait of Esther Telfer Smith under her married name, taken in the mid-1890s soon before her marriage to Wesleyan minister Thomas Henry Kent (m. 9 Apr 1895). She stands three-quarter length before a painted studio backdrop amid wooden trellis and spiky plant props, in the fashions of the day — dark high-necked blouse with a stiff stand-up collar, voluminous "leg-of-mutton" sleeves and ruffled peplum, a belt with silver buckle and a long decorative silver chatelaine-style chain, over a lighter plain skirt, her light hair swept up with a centre part. The printed plate caption beneath the portrait reads "Esther Kent, (nee Smith)". (From the Borders to the Bush, 1989 — plate p.45; photograph supplied by Mark Telfer)

Family

Life Summary

Esther Telfer Smith was born 27 Sep 1870 at Tungkillo, the third child of Esther Jane Telfer and John Smith. She married Thomas Henry Kent, a Wesleyan minister, on 9 Apr 1895; they had no children. She died of consumption on 5 May 1896 and is buried in the Methodist section of Nyngan General Cemetery, near her sister Jane Sophie.

⚠️ Verified correction (07 Aug 2026): Previously the relationship fields in this file had Father and Mother reversed (listing Esther Jane Telfer as "Father" and John Smith as "Mother"). Corrected — John Smith is the father, Esther Jane Telfer is the mother. Sources: WikiTree Telfer-591 (Esther Jane as daughter of Francis & Jean Murray), WikiTree Jorgenson-248 (Hans/Johann "John" Smith as husband of Esther Jane, d. 5 May 1895, Nyngan), FindAGrave memorials 60478615 (Esther) & 60478626 (John).

Source: A Telfer Family Tree (Supplement) pp.11, 25 · From the Borders to the Bush Ch.3 (pp.36–57) — accessed 07 Aug 2026. Family relationship cross-verified via FindAGrave 60478615/60478626 + WikiTree Telfer-591 / Jorgenson-248.

Family Stories

🖊️ Anecdote — as told in From the Borders to the Bush (book pp. 44–45): It's a hard thing, the promise before she passed. Her daughter Esther — the namesake — fell in love with a Wesleyan minister named Thomas Henry Kent and married him in April 1895. But she hadn't even struck her first anniversary when that cruel consumption took Thomas, on the seventeenth of December 1895. And then, five months later to the day, Esther followed him. But before she went she made her sister Margaret promise something: that if ever Margaret found herself in Melbourne, she would go and stand at Thomas's grave. Forty-six years it weighed on Margaret. She lost her own husband too, and then one day, an old widow herself, she asked her son-in-law Roy Pearce to drive her all the way from Bendigo to Melbourne — just to keep that promise, to visit the grave of a man she'd barely known, because her dying sister had asked it of her. There's no explaining that except in blood and loyalty.

(Anecdote only — family colour, told as the elders tell it. Does not establish any relationship, date or place.)