Letterbook of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, 1862-1876

Component identifier:

File 1

Content Summary:

The volume contains copies of letters from governesses who had emigrated to the colonies, mainly Australia and New Zealand, with the assistance of the Society. They were addressed to the secretaries of the Society, Maria Rye, Jane Lewin, Martha Wyett and Miss Sunter. Most of the correspondents wrote a letter soon after their arrival, while a small number sent several letters over a period of years.

Some of the letters were simply business letters concerning the repayment of loans or other financial matters. Others were much longer, describing their experiences since they left England, their impressions of their new homes and colonial society generally, and their hopes and disappointments. Among the subject matter of the letters were the voyage, conditions on the ships, relations with other emigrants, their first impressions on their arrival at their destination, relations with colonial clergy and other settlers, their employment as governesses and teachers, wages, the management of children, changes of employment, marriages, decisions to return to England, prospects for governesses in the colonies, wages of domestic workers, bush life, colonial society and the financial position of the colonies.

The Australian correspondents include Margaret Allen (Melbourne, Mount Gambier), Marie Atherton (Brisbane), C. Barlow (Melbourne), Mary Bayly (Sydney), Eliza Bernard (Sydney), Elizabeth Boake (Melbourne), Louisa Booty (Sandhurst, Victoria), Maria Borrow (Melbourne), Ann Davis (Sydney), Louise Dearmer (Sydney), Jane Finch (Sydney, Yass), Eliza Ford (Sydney), Louisa Geoghegan (Apsley, Victoria), Fanny Giles (Morpeth, NSW), Omérine Giraud (Melbourne), Gertrude Gooch (Sydney), Sarah Hamnett (Melbourne), Caroline Heawood (Melbourne, Ballarat), Annie Hunt (Melbourne, Wangaratta), Ellen Ireland (Newcastle, Goulburn), Edith Jadis (Melbourne, Deniliquin), Laura Jones (Melbourne, Waranga, Sandhurst), Jane Kidson (Melbourne), M. Kightley (Melbourne), Caroline Lash (Sydney), Isabella MacGillivray (Williamstown, Victoria), Agnes Macqueen (Brisbane), Cécille Nagelle (Melbourne, Gawler, Angaston), M.A. Oliver (Horsham, Victoria), Ellen Ollard (Melbourne), Rosa Phayne (Glenorchy, Melbourne), Lucy Phillips (Melbourne), Mary Phillips (Goulburn), Mary Richardson (Port Macquarie), Isabelle Rodgerson (Sydney), Annie Shaw (Melbourne), Clara Stone (Melbourne ), Elizabeth Streeter (Jerry's Plains, Hunter Valley), Eliza Walpole (Ballarat), Sarah Webb (Sandhurst, Victoria) and H. Wilson (Brisbane).

The New Zealand correspondents include Lizzie Braddell (Manuherikia, Otago), Kate Brind (Nelson), Eliza Brook (Dunedin), Mary Brook (Dunedin), J.M. Cary (Dunedin, Wanganui), Marian Hett (Christchurch, Napier, Wellington), Augusta McNeill (Lyttelton), Georgina McNeill (Lyttelton), E.L. Manning (Dunedin), J. Merritt (Auckland), Lucy Scott (Christchurch), M.E. Smith (Wellington), Barbara Starkey (Napier), Fanny Thomas (Dunedin), Mary Wilson (Masterton) and Martha Wyett (Greytown, Wairarapa).

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