Mary Ann de Mestre née Black was the wife of Prosper de Mestre a prominent Sydney businessman in the early 1800s; and the mother of Etienne Livingstone de Mestre the trainer of the racehorse Archer who won the first and second Melbourne Cups in 1861 and 1862, and the foremost Australian horse trainer of his era. It was on her 1300 acre property of "Terara" on the Shoalhaven River near Nowra on the South Coast of New South Wales that Etienne established a horse stud, stable and racecourse. Mary Ann other descendants include: Sarah Melanie de Mestre who distinguished herself as a nurse in France and Flanders in World War I, and whose decorations included the Royal Red Cross which was presented to her at Buckingham Palace by King George V on 3 June 1918; Roy de Maistre, a successful Australian artist; Guboo Ted Thomas a prominent Aboriginal leader, and the last initiated tribal elder on the South Coast of New South Wales; Margaret Augusta de Mestre, a nurse who was killed in action on a hospital ship on 26 February 1942 in the bombing of Darwin during World War II.