In 1788 a young gentlewoman raised in an English vicarage married a handsome, haughty and penniless army officer. In any Jane Austen novel, that would be the end of the story, but for the woman who would play an integral part in establishing Australia’s wool industry, it was just the beginning. Elizabeth Macarthur landed at…
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HARRIET CLISBY Storm-centre of Two Continents SPENT CHILDHOOD HERE Harriet Clisby, whose death is announced, wore ringlets and frilled pantalettes when she arrived in Adelaide in 1837—but she had a brain that made her a storm-centre of two continents! There was nothing early Victorian about the woman, who left a pioneer music shop in Adelaide…
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GOVERNESS OR LADY HELP ? TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS. Sir,–I belong to that unhappy class of persons known as governesses, where every accomplishment is required, and the salary is, with few exceptions, what a good cook would decline to take. If a lady can teach English, music, singing, French, Latin, Italian, German, &c.,…
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Lady detectives seem to have come late to Australia. The concept of them was known throughmost of the Victorian era, as they were subject of some popular novels, including Revelations of a Lady Detective (1864) which was advertised, widely, for many, many, many years in regional Australian newspapers. (It made searching… fun.) Tracing them was also…
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Sydney Gazette, 16 October 1803 Sydney Gazette, 19 June 1808 Sydney Gazette, 12 February 1810 Hobart Town Gazette, 19 October 1816 Hobart Town Gazette, 12 August 1820 Sydney Gazette, 16 October 1823 Sydney Gazette, 23 October 1823 Sydney Gazette, 9 January 1826 The Australian, 10 September 1828 Sydney Monitor, 20 September 1828 Sydney Gazette, 21…
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I found this one on the wall of the tea room at Franklin House, a spinster and governess!* Charlotte’s brother ran a boys school at Franklin Village, but she “was forced to gain employment. This she found at the Archer family house of Northbury near Longford” (pictured above). At first she worked as “a governess…
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Cornwall Chronicle, 19 May 1860 Launceston Examiner, 2 June 1959 Launceston Examiner, 9 March 1861
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Miss Mary Newton, employed as Grisette in Mr. Haynes’ pastry establishment, charged with a breach of the Police Act, under the following circumstances:–A Mr. Merton, who has just joined the Police Department in the capacity of district constable, having rather a fashionable exterior, hit upon a novel plan to raise the wind, and thereupon sallied…
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Caption: “Woman [possibly Aboriginal or Chinese?] selling fruit from small barrow” Sydney, ca. 1885-1890, photographed by Arthur K. Syer From a series of Sydney street scenes, (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales)
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Some potential employers have low requirements 🙂 A trawl through the advertisements in the Argus, 14 November 1860 TUTORS, GOVERNESSES, CLERKS etc SERVANTS DOMESTIC SERVANTS. (To the Editor of the Star.) SIR,-Your leader on the above subject demands the serious attention of heads of families. There can be no doubt that all the evils and inconveniences…
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