Feather Curlers & Cleaners

Sydney Gazette, 11 August 1825 Not an occupation I can find out much about. Feather curlers were used by milliners to produce suitable feathers for their hats. However, if you read down through these advertisements you’ll see they’re offering a different, if related, service. Bearing in mind here, hats were necessary fashion accessory, and if…

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Elizabeth Macarthur

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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100 Years of Disappointed, Disgruntled, Discredited Husbands

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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Maria Lord

As time passes, most people fade into obscurity. Their names are forgotten, unless something is named after them or someone passes by their headstone. Their existence is forgotten until an ancestor digs them up (not literally, I hope), or a researcher starts poking around in the history of a place or object. Some people though…

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Whereas My Husband… Or, What’s Good For Gander

Sydney Gazette, 28 July 1821 This is sequel to 100 Years of Disappointed, Disgruntled, Discredited Husbands. I have transcribed the longer advertisements/letters where the text might be too small to read and included the image, except where it’s an ongoing debate wherein I have just included the text. TO THE PUBLIC.— WHEREAS Mr. Thomas Arkell…

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Midwives, 1820-1840

Hobart Town Gazette, 21 September 1822 These are first advertisements that I found for female midwives. They first appear in Hobart and in NSW in the late 1830s. (There is an earlier ad for a “surgeon & man midwife in 1819). They are interesting in the amount of information given about the advertisers: credentials, background, testimonials. Compare to advertisements…

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Eliza

In the main street of Campbell Town, Tasmania is this statue, dedicated to Eliza Forlong who, on deciding in her 40s to emigrate to New South Wales to breed sheep, first walked across Saxony to find the best breeding stock, and therefore became one of the founders of the Australian wool industry. Australian Dictionary of…

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Mrs Kearney

ON Sale at Mrs. Kearney’s, Fresh Butter at 5s. per lb. where New Milk may be had every Morning at 7 o’clock, at 6d. per quart. Hobart Town Gazette, 7 November 1818 MRS. KEARNEY informs her Customers and the Inhabitants of Hobart Town, that she has reduced the Price of her Milk to 6d. per…

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Harriett

Probably I shouldn’t include Mrs Davis, because she doesn’t play an important part in the story, but you can’t expect me to pass on Brady & Co, and she is interesting — for something it’s claimed she didn’t do. This little notice appeared in the Hobart Town Gazette on the 8th July 1825: Brady and…

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Ladies of the Bush

This is a series of posts Women’s History Month in 2011, about bushrangers. That is the ladies in the stories of bushrangers. Sometimes they played the major supporting role, sometimes they were pivotal to the story, sometimes they are a side note and the subject of much speculation. All of them have interesting stories of…

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