John Street (Australian politician)

John Rendell Street was born in Woodlands, New South Wales, to businessman John Wood Street and Marie (née Rendell) Street.[2] His father descended from the Englishman, Baron Sir Thomas Street. John Wood Street had arrived from England as a free settler in 1822, finding land at Bathurst and marrying Marie Rendell, with Reverend Samuel Marsden officiating, before settling in Woodlands, New South Wales.[3]

Street first entered business in Sydney in 1849, working with Smith, Crawford & Co. He would later be made a partner at Allen, Street & Norton. In 1885 he became managing director of the Perpetual Trustee Company. He was a director of Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company, and a vice president of Sydney Hospital.[4] In 1887, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Free Trade member for East Sydney, a position he held until his death at Elizabeth Bay in 1891.[5] Street was the first member of the Street family to make an entry into Australian politics.

On 4 December 1860, he married Susanna Caroline Lawson, daughter of explorer William Lawson, who discovered the first crossing across the Blue Mountains, to the knowledge of settlers, alongside Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth on the 1813 crossing of the Blue Mountains expedition. Street's brother-in-law via his sister Sarah Maria (née Street) was the Australian politician and banker Thomas Whistler Smith, deputy chairman of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (now NAB) and nephew of Australian politician and banker Henry Gilbert Smith.

John and Susanna had seven children, the eldest son being Sir Philip Street, who would go on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, as would John's grandson Sir Kenneth Street and great-grandson Sir Laurence Street.[5] His third son Ernest Henry Street married Emma Margaret Browne on 1 June 1892, the daughter of author Thomas Alexander Browne.[6]