Daughters of the Empire and Mothers of the Race:

by Barbara Roberts Caroline Chisholm and Female Emigration in the British Empire

;'lf Great Britain conquered half the surplus of women—"redundants," they world in a fit of absence of mind," one were called. In the colonies, the need student of emigration claims, "she for women was acute, women to work as peopled it in a mood of lazy indiffer• home and farm helps, and to become ence. "( 1 )Wh i 1 e this may be facile, wives and mothers, founding the fam• there is ample evidence to suggest that, ilies which were at the basis of a on the whole, concerns relating to sound colonial society. But while it emigration were left to the private was agreed that men of nearly every sector for most of the nineteenth cen• class could succeed in the colonies, tury. It was the phi1anthropists(2)who given the right combination of skills, attempted to deal with the problems of hard work and luck, prevailing social the emigration trade, guided not so roles meant that: much by government policy, as by values . . . for women the demand was al• common to the middle classes of Victor• most more exacting; for although ian Britain. The assumption that so• there was an intense shortage of ciety was based on the family underlay women in the Australian colonies, all philanthropic efforts to shape em• and a marked disparity between the igration policy, and it was through sexes in Canada, . . . the supply promoting the existence of the Victorian of women as servants and as farm family in the colonies that the colon• workers did not fully cover the ies that the colonies were to be brought need for women as wives . . . to maturity within the Empire. and as civilizing elements ... .(3) The Victorian woman was the key figure in the Victorian family. Therefore, The women who could meet the moral much of the work of philanthropists was needs of the colonies were thought to concerned with female emigration. But be those who resembled Coventry there were serious contradictions in the Patmore's "Angel in the house."(k) situation which made this work difficult, Yet it was clear that women who were contradictions stemming from conflicts needed by the educated colonists and between the physical and moral needs of by developing countries as wives and the mother country and of the colonies. mothers, and as stabilizing in• fluences in the rough and tumble new Emigration was supposed to solve two societies, were likely to be those problems of the Victorian period: the who were not fitted to endure the presence of surplus population in the hardships of pioneer life. British Isles, and the shortage of labour and population in the colonies. Some philanthropists considered female In addition to a general surplus of emigration the most important area of population, there was also a particular Empire building echoing Edward Gibbon

Engraving of Caroline Chisholm from the Illustrated London News, courtesy of the Public Archives of Canada, Picture Division. Wakefield's'feeling that "as respects were to work as a team, with one doing morals and manners, it is of little women's work full-time, and the other importance what colonial fathers are doing men's work, then production in comparison to colonial mothers."(5) would be increased to that of a married Wakefield's writings on emigration and man. But this was unnatural: colonization were more explicit than We need not stop to look at the most about the importance of women in moral evils of this excess of the colonies. In his 1833 essay, "The males. Economically speaking, art of colonization," he discussed the it seems quite plain, the poor objectives of colonization and the immigrants brought to the colony role of women in meeting these objec• . . . ought to be men and women tives. The advantages of coloniza• in equal numbers, and if married, tion were several. First, the exten• so much the better.(8) sion of the markets of the home country And although the material advantages of for the disposal of surplus produce. such a system were many, Secondly, the provision of relief from . . .the moral advantages of such excess population. Thirdly, the en• a selection of immigrants would largement of the area in which capital not be few. Each female would could be employed.(6)The main object have a special protector from the of any emigration policy should be "to moment of her departure from home. obtain as much labour as can lind em• No man would have any excuse for ployment with good wages" in a colony, dissolute habits. Air the evils, so the mother colony could sell goods which have so often sprung from a and be provided with raw materials, disproportion between the sexes, thus creating what Wakefield termed a would be avoided. Every pair of "community of interest."(7) immigrants would have the strongest motives for industry, shrewdness, Women were a necessary component of and thrift.(9) this creation. Wakefield, unlike many of his contemporaries, stressed not Wakefield believed that moral evils in only the moral importance of women , in the colony (by this he meant prostitu• building the colonies, but also the tion) arose not from hunger but solely economic aspects of their work. He from the imbalance of the sexes. He explained the efficiency of the sexual asked, if the women of England loved division of labour in increasing their fellow Christians, "why do they product-ion. Because of the necessity not send some women...?" He explained: of women's work in production for use If they will equalize the sexes, in the home as well as for market, a we offer a husband, plenty, and a single man could not himself produce virtuous life to every one of the as much as a married man. If two men miserable beings that they may charitably withdraw from sin and suited to him. In the lower ranks mi sery.(10) of life a wife is not only a blessing and a comfort, as in the Although Wakefield's belief in the far- higher, but actually increases a reaching consequences of the imbalance man's wealth by the value of her of the sexes was a commonplace, and all labour . . . .(12) agreed that "decent" women were neces• sary for the establishment of a "decent" Some, knowing that women were often colonial society, there was some debate reluctant to face the hardship and on how to procure suitable colonial loneliness of pioneer life aJvised mothers. Some of the earlier emigration men "how to manage refractory women," manuals had even advised against suggesting that, if no other argument gentlemen marrying before emigration. would induce one's wife to undertake Savage's Observation on emigration to the great adventure, "the ultimate, the Uni ted States admonished: ' •i-Hl go without you, ' if persevered in Can any young man of common feel• without any wavering, seldom fails."(13) ing and spirit, when he is plight• ing his faith at the altar, 'to If a man could not find a "lady" to love and cherish til death' to an marry, hoping that she would be made amiable and lovely young female, of as stern stuff as was necessary, whose affections he had gained by he could do perhaps as did one young assiduous attentions, look for• man who was discussed in t"he January ward to plunging her into such a 1849 issue of The Emigrant. In Devon- life of misery as the unhappy port, a 22 year old servant had been settler endures without feeling sent to the workhouse infirmary, due sensations of horror? No! For• to illness; after her recovery, she bid it every manly feeling! They decided that, although she had been dictate to protect from the rude satisfied with her position, she wished blasts of this world--as far as to emigrate. The Guardians agreed to human power will permit—the ten• advance her money for her outfit and der and affectionate contributor passage. While at the depot, she was to his comforts and happiness approached by a young man she did not . . . .(11) know, of obviously a better class than she, who told her he liked her honest

Others were far more optimistic. v face, and asked if she were healthy In whatsoever rank of life a man and of good character. When she re• is placed, it is so easy to sup• plied that she was, he proposed mar• port a wife and family, that riage to her. She agreed to have her every wise young man marries as character verified by her former em• soon as he can find a helpmate ployer; this concluded, he repaid her debt to the Guardians, presented her phenomenon. Some of these gentlewomen with a fine new outfit, and after the went out as governesses, but the marriage they sailed off to a new life greatest need in the colonies was for together.(14) home helps or domestic servants, and most ladies were unsuitable on account Of course, her suitability stemmed in of pride or incompetence. There was, large part from the fact that she was a however, one skill at which Victorian very respectable girl, of high morals "ladies" were thought to show some com• and good character, in addition to petence—supervising the lower orders. possessing the combination of skills, They did this in the capacity of work habits and attitudes of deference matrons on emigrant ships. and gratitude towards her new spouse which would be supremely useful in a It was partly through the presence of pioneer wife. In the more fluid at• supervising matrons that the trans• mosphere of the colony, she could in formation of female emigrants into time be transformed into a "ladylike" colonial mothers could take place. A enough personage to be a suitable mate matron was to be: for her husband in more traditional ... a lady, or person of British terms. superior mind and intelligence, to command the respect of those The promotion of the idea that respec• below her. Such persons have in• table girls of good character and variably succeeded in maintaining strict morals could, under the right order, while the matrons chosen circumstances, become suitable as from among the emigrants are of colonial mothers was an important part little or no use.(17) of the work done by the philanthropists Although matrons could be in dis• involved in female emigration. They tressed circumstances and often were, argued that it was necessary, to main• this did not lessen their efficacy. tain "an influx into the colonies of a A colonization tract discussed an body of women infinitely superior by example of this type of candidate: birth, by education, and by taste, to It were well if a family of the the hordes of wild uneducated crea• high respectability of Mrs. tures . . . hitherto sent abroad."(15) Jones and her daughters were to The "elevation of morals" was assumed accompany every body of female to be the "inevitable result of the emigrants. Mrs. Jones was a mere presence in the colony of a number lady by birth and education, as of high class women."(16)Getting them were her daughters, though they continued to be a problem, despite the had been reduced by circumstan• fact that by mid-century, the "dis• ces to the greatest poverty. Un• tressed gentlewoman" was a widespread less such is the case, few ladies would be found to undergo the of the captain and the surgeon, and, annoyances and the difficulties more importantly, upon the cushion of which a matron on board an emi• goodwill and respect which her charges grant ship must encounter, except were expected to feel for her. Her they feel the duty of sacrificing duties were varied; mainly, she was to their own comfort for the sake of be in charge of a moral and vocational benefitting a number of their training programme for the women she fellow creatures. Certainly, a supervised. This programme was to Christian lady of energy and moral provide the emigrants with the found• courage would prove a great bless• ations of good habits necessary to ing on board every emigrant their new life, as well as to keep ship.(18) them out of mischief on the trip lest their respectability and nascent In order to ensure a supply of these gentility be damaged by a moment's admirable creatures, the British La• carelessness. It was of "immense dies' Female Emigrant Society was importance" to keep "strict discipline formed in 1849- Its objects were to and industrious habits among emi• provide matrons to superintend and grants, especially among the women," train women during the trip to the as "the idle and frivolous habits en• colonies, to provide a Home in London couraged or contracted on board ship, for matrons between trips, to visit utterly unfit many women for their emigrants at ports, "instructing, duties in the colony."(21) counselling, and assisting them, and placing the young and friendless under Some of these training schemes were in• the matron's care."(19)At the ports, deed detailed; one ship's surgeon who they were to distribute Bibles and fancied himself an expert described his other suitable reading materials to scheme to the Reverend Thomas Chi Ids, emigrants and also materials to work who visited a shipload of orphan girls with during the trip, so that "the voy• from the Irish unions at St. Mary's, age might be made a season of industry Devonport. The surgeon began by isola• and employment, and not of idleness and ting them completely from the male crew demoralization."(20)Corresponding com• and organised them according to "a sort mittees to visit and assist the arriving of female military discipline" within immigrants were to be established in the which they would pray, sew, study read• colonies. ing, writing and manners, sing, do physical drill and learn country dances The matron on board emigrant ships In add i t ion: worked in conjunction with a variety of They should all learn how to wash; land-based philanthropic groups, but at and I would have a row of washtubs sea she had to rely upon the authority on deck, and make them, under in-

Ill HERE AND THEliE; Or, Emigration a Remedy, Illustration from Punch, 1848. Courtesy Radio Times Hulton Picture Library.

spection of their monitors, go Robert Louis Stevenson observed, "In down on their knees and wash their the steerage there are males and fe• clothes. I would keep them working males; in the second cabin, ladies and away at it till they know how to do gentlemen."(23) it properly. I would furnish each ship with a few sets of laundress' Getting the would-be mothers of the irons, and they should be taught race to their destination properly how to iron properly; this know• trained was not the end of the philan• ledge would be of great advan• thropic task. Once in the colony the tage to them, providing the emigrant had to be handed on to a net• matron or some of the young work of protection and supervision un• women on board are accustomed to til she was well-established in her new the work. They should also be life. The importance of such networks taught to clean every part of was widely recognised by philanthropists the between-decks properly, and after mid-century, but their existence to use dusters; so, that when was due to the pioneering work of only they go into service they may be a few far-sighted and courageous women. up to housemaid's work. . . .(22) Of course, this programme did not af• Caroline Chisholm was such a person. fect "ladies," only "females." As She worked in India, and the British isles to improve the lot of of the ranks of the army, she estab• women. She was an influence upon such lished a girls' school as a corrective. widely divergent persons as Charles The school combined a regular classroom Dickens and Florence Nightingale. She setting with a training centre for vo• was lauded as the epitome of a "PHILAN• cational and moral upgrading. Her THROPIST! a word mighty in significance" methods were as advanced as her analysis. whose name was imbued with "humanizing The way the school was established and radiance."(24)Chisholm's success lay administered illustrates a good deal partly in her ability to combine femin• about the form Chisholm's later efforts ine characteristics and decorous be• were to take. The head of the school haviour with determination and zeal; was a matron who, while a good house• because she was so proper, she was able keeper, was illiterate. Her illiteracy to involve herself in situations un• was considered an asset in that it thinkable for many other respectable placed the responsibility for record• women.(25) keeping and school reports in the hands of the young pupils. The girls ran the Caroline Jones was born in 1808 into a place by committee, did all the house• well-to-do family which had hold management, assisted in every task strong leanings towards the liberal re• and thereby gained practical experience formist spirit of the early decades of as well as theoretical knowledge. They the century. Her father died when she were guided in their studies by a mix• was still a girl, leaving her to be ture of strict rules, enforced mainly by educated by her mother under what she shaming and moral pressures, by oft- termed "easy circumstances."(26)She reiterated praises for successes and a married Archibald Chisholm, a British good deal of affection. They were Army officer, when she was twenty years periodically exhorted by the Patrons of of age. They were to work as a team the school, ladies all, in this vein: for most of their lives together, he I fancy I already hear your father taking a supportive role towards her say, in honest pride, that my girl work and assisting as actively as he can keep accounts, cook a dinner, could in all her schemes. Their joint and she is only fourteen years of endeavours began when two years after age; and your mother says, yes, their marriage she went to India with and make a shirt and cut it out as her husband. In India, she was horri• well if not better than I can. fied by the squalour of barrack life, That you will be able to do these and set about to reform it. things I fully expect, and have no doubt that you will have a great Deciding that the best approach to tht- deal of pleasure in doing so; and problem lay in the provision of an ade• your being able to do them will quate education for the female children give you a proper feeling of inde- pendence, that is, if your parents volved in various schemes to do with should die, you would be able by the colonies. Of her own efforts, she your good conduct and management sa id: to support yourselves and little My first attempt at colonization brothers and sisters, for God will was carried out in a wash-hand never forsake the good.(27) basin, before I was seven years old sailing doll families on boats The inmates of the fledgling 'Home of made of broad beans . . . and Industry1 were assured of posts as strange as it may seem, many of housekeepers and servants and, also, as the ideas which I have carried out wives for non-commissioned officers. first gained possession of my mind In addition, the school was beseiged by at that period(29) applications for admission from young Her interest in the plight of female im• wives who were untrained and incapable migrants to the Australian colonies was of managing their households. Mrs. aroused by the lurid stories circulating Chisholm considered the venture an un• about the abuses of the trade. Believ• qualified success, both as a school ing them to be exaggerations or lies, and as a means to effect lasting she investigated, and found that the changes in society. She believed that: stories were true. The depots were . . . a useful and virtuous direc• overcrowded, improperly run and offered tion of the mind of female youth almost no protection against fraud or tells powerfully ever afterwards exploitation. Unsuitable women were in society, for the true education arriving, and those who were not unsuit• of future generations is ever cen• able when they left England were liable tered in the maternal parent.(28) to become so in Australia.

She left India in I838 when her husband The sending of unsuitable women to the was posted to Australia. In her colonies created controversy in the attention was turned to the needs of British Isles as well as abroad. Social immigrants and she became involved in reformers did not always find the actions social work. Although her husband was of officials acceptable and there were sent back to India in 1840, Chisholm also instances of conflicts between var• and the children remained in Australia ious official bodies, and within them, (for the sake of their health) and her about who should be sent abroad. The work continued. controversy which arose over the pro• posed shipment of ten female paupers to According to her own account, she had the Australian colonies by the Poor Law first become interested in emigration Commissioners of St. Marylebone parish as a child as a consequence of meeting is illustrative. An emigration agent her father's guests who were often in• had appeared before the Board and of- fered to take female paupers aged 16-26 The Reverend Mr. Scobel1 agreed that to Australia on a fee-per-head basis. the proposal would indeed get rid of The committee which was appointed to a "troublesome lot of girls" and consider the offer reported that the give them a chance to reform. He re• women were of bad character who would minded the committee that "these would not have been selected as emigrants not be the first that had been set out under other conditions. The Times re• from that house." Mr. Perry pointed ported the incident(30)and a wide dis• out that there was "almost a certainty cussion ensued. A letter from Messrs. of their engagement immediately" as Elliott, Torrens and Villiers was sent domes11cs. (33) to Lord Russell objecting to the pro• posal. Among their concerns was the The Board of Directors and Guardians possibility that these women would be of the Poor at St. Marylebone did not on a four-month trip with no matron, no accept the recommendations of the Com• surgeon and no supervision to keep them mittee in this matter. They decided apart from the crew. They would be not to pay their passage. Most Boards dumped at Adelaide and would surely be• were not so scrupulous. come 11 i mmo ra1." . . .while nothing can be more Chisholm was well aware of situations beneficial to all concerned than of this sort. She commented: well-considered and wel1-selected You should bear in mind there are emigration, the removal of parties poor-rates in the mother country, in the present manner is not likely and to suppose that the clergy to be advantageous to themselves, and magistrates will send you and is calculated to be pernicious their best and keep their worst to the colony into which they are is really giving them credit for introduced.(31) an extraordinary share of kind• ness . (34) The Poor Law Committee's reasoning in the matter was somewhat different. The Chisholm saw not only examples of members expressed their desire to re• England's worst in her visits to the lieve the parish of the expense of sup• emigrant depots in Sydney, but also ob• porting these women, realizing that it served conditions which could not have would be cheaper in the long run to pay but led to the "ruin" or innocents. their passage and be rid of them. Mr. One case in particular troubled her: on Kensett explained that: her first visit she saw an unusually They could do nothing with them lovely Scottish girl (who had come with here, and it was his belief that her mother) attended most assiduously a change of scene might tend to by a gentleman. Subsequently she ob• reclaim them and make them good served the girl sporting new finery. members of society.(32) Warning the mother, she was told not to about commencing her work, she had a worry. The girl "was all innocence— keen sense of publicity as well as the mother all hope" that the courtship propriety. She consistently apologized would end in marriage or respectable for her presence in the public sphere, employment.(35)Chisholm investigated while proselytizing on the need for the and learned that the gentleman was mar• work that she was doing. On the title ried and his intentions were dishonour• page of an 1842 pamphlet, she quotes able. She found that, although there from a work entitled American Mother: were ladies' committees for the emigrant This is not women's work—but, when barracks, they never made their visita• men are silent, tongue-tied, timid, tions; in short, there was no way of fearful, I must try to rouse these rescuing poor Flora. Chisholm was gal• neutrals, lest these poor maidens, vanized into action by this experience: forced by necessity to wander from From this period I devoted all my their homes, fall into the hands of leisure time in endeavouring to .(38) serve these poor girls, and felt Her pamphlet is an expose of evils ac• determined, with God's blessing, companying the existing system of female never to rest until decent protec- immigration and an exhortation to the tion was afforded them.(36) government to institute reforms (which are outlined) of benefit to the economy She began by taking some of the more as well as the moral state of the pitiable and salvageable women home with colony.(39)She concludes: her to help them find suitable jobs. Being, I believe, the first lady in She soon found herself with a house full Australia who has ventured before most of the time. Concluding that her the public, this circumstance will own resources were grossly inadequate to entitle me to some indulgence; but the need at hand, she decided it would I ask for no favor; all I have a be necessary to persuade the government right to expect is, a fair and just to provide a proper shelter and referral interpretation of my feelings and agency for single women immigrants. i ntent ions.(40) This decision was not reached easily; The pamphlet is dedicated to "the Chisholm hesitated before becoming more reverend the clergy of Australia," and deeply involved in Australian immigra• describes her work as an offering of tion because she, "as a female and al• her talents to God, for the sake of most a stranger to the Colony, felt which she had resolved to: diffident,"(37)and as a convert to . . . sacrifice my feel i ngs—sur• Catholicism, feared an additional ad• render all comfort—nor, in fact, verse reaction. to consider my own wishes or feelings, but wholly devote my• However diffident Chisholm had been self to the work I had in hand.(41) niJJNKl! IN THE FORECASTLE.

cene on board an Australian emigrant ship, 1849, courtesy of the Radio Tim ulton Picture Library. She began by writing to Lady Gipps in poisoned, and eager "gentlemen," whom January 1841. Lacking an immediate she lectured.(43)She was forced to send response, she decided it would be neces• her own children to the country to a sary to make use of the press. She friend's home; the shelter was not visited the Herald office in Sydney and suitable for babies. But she soon began found support there, eventually per• to accumulate lost, strayed and homeless suading a number of editors that the young women. She dealt with them in issues were pertinent. The response of two ways. She established a system to the government was less generous. She match prospective employers with ser• then decided to publish letters she had vants, which became a sort of servant received, but was dissuaded on account placement agency with moral overtones. of the damage it would do the colony. She also began the practice of taking Instead, she called on prominent women groups of women into the country dis• and got expressions of interest but not tricts and placing them in suitable of financial support. She was attacked homes. On later trips she took families, by the clergy, accused of fomenting a single men and women and children.(44) "Popish plot," and obstructed and dis• She arranged transport for these groups couraged by Catholic and Protestant in a variety of ingenious ways, includ• alike. She was at the point of retreat ing the use of empty drays returning but was stiffened in her resolve by upcountry. She accompanied almost all catching sight of Flora, the Highland the parties herself on her white horse, beauty whose certain ruin she had ob• "Captain," and organised food and shel• served earlier. Inspired afresh, she ter for her charges along the way. She worked on, and soon after, convinced continued this practice for many years a priest of her good and became so well known throughout the intentions; support from other clergy countryside that she was beseiged for was soon forthcoming. requests for women to help in country homes. Once her cause became acceptable, offic• ial s and affluent ladies supported it as Her work in placement was of particular well. Lady Gipps found her space in the importance. It was prompted by her existing immigrants' barracks arid an disapproval of the existing system which office of fourteen square feet was also allowed women to be hired directly dur• hers.(42) ing the ten days they were permitted to remain on board ship. It was reputedly Mostly through her own hard work, she common practice for girls of tender age opened her first small and rather grubby to find themselves sent to brothels as shelter for female immigrants in 1841. a consequence of this system. In The earliest days were difficult. There Chisholm's system, this could never hap• were skirmishes with rats, which she pen, as she personally supervised every aspect of placement and carefully re• Secondly, there were the "light handy searched the market for her services. girls who are willing to learn."(49) She began by sending out a letter to Lastly, the "do-nothings" who often persons of note in country districts, came out as governesses but in fact explaining her intention to open an im• could do nothing. Sometimes they were migrants' home, and soliciting informa• former domestic servants, sometimes tion about conditions of employment and women who had been or wanted to be prevailing pay rates in the area. She "ladies." Chisholm also noted that very also inquired about employment possi• pretty women were difficult to place, bilities for "girls who at home have regardless of how good their qualifica• merely been accustomed to milk cows, tions or characters; "they are not, it wash, and the common household work appears, liked as servants, though they about a farm," a category or worker are preferred as wives."(50) known in later times as "home helps."(45) Good character was very important, both Although the immediate intent of her to Chisholm and to the prospective em• endeavours was the placement of female ployers. They, as well as she, looked immigrants in jobs, Mrs. Chisholm had beyond the servant to the wife. Re• other long term goals in mind as well: quests for good character exceeded those I should not feel the interest for all other attributes. This streng• I do in female emigration, if I thened Chisholm in her conviction that did not look beyond providing . . . great good . . . may be done families with female servants. by a wel1-selected class of female If I did not know how much they ?mmigrants--they must be under the are required as wives, and how care of a lady at sea, and placed much moral good they may spread under government protection in forth in society as wives.(46) Sydney until they are provided for.(51) Chisholm classified the single women who had passed through her office into While she agreed that it was important three sorts: first, there were those for women to have jobs paying a living who were competent at working and eager wage, she nevertheless believed that to do so. "For these, the demand is "the rate payable for female labour . . very great, both as servants and wives." should be proportioned on a lower scale Of this group, she said, "not one girl than that paid to a man" because "high has lost character."(47)They were con• wages tempt many girls to keep single sidered to be "the only girls sent out while encouraging indolent and lazy men that can meet, with good humour, the to depend more upon their wives' in• difficulties of the bush" and make the dustry than upon their own exertions, rough hardy bush settlers happy.(48) thus partly reversing the design of nature."(52) Despite her acceptance Although sharing the ideas of many of of the idea that the ultimate func• her contemporaries about the role of tion of the women she protected and women in society as that of wife, placed in the new land was that of mother and repository of virtue and wife and mother, she did not ever morality, Caroline Chisholm appears to respond directly to "orders" for have been rather more realistic than brides. Instead, she placed single many about working with the materials at women in jobs as teachers, servants, hand. She was not repulsed by the home helps and the like in districts lower classes and saw in them possibil• where the shortage of marriageable ities for a decent and productive way of women was acute. 1 ife. That I take pleasure on hearing when a girl is married is a fact, In Australia as in India, Caroline and I also like to see girls Chisholm's work was among these more piaced where they stand a fai r "squalid" sectors of society. Her ef• chance of being well married.(53) forts were aimed at the upper strata of the working class in the colonies. It may be argued that this method was Her reasons were simple: merely a matter of form, but she was It was among this class that the adamant in sticking to it. Discussing girls married best. If they mar• this problem later, she reiterated ried one of the sons, the mother her earlier position: and father would be thankful; if It was on the principle of family not, they would be protected as colonization, and actuated by such members of the family--they slept feelings, that I carried out my in the same room with their matrimonial endeavours in the daughters. I have been able to Australian bush. I, at times, learn the subsequent progress in took a number of single young life of many hundreds of these females with me, in company of emigrants. Girls that I have emigrant families, but then I taken up country, in such a allowed no matrimonial engagement destitute state that I have been to be made on the way, and at the obliged to get a decent dress to same time I took care to place the put on them, have come to me again, young women in situations from having every comfort about them, which they might with that con• and wanting servants.(55) sideration due to the feelings of women, enter with propriety and As her work in the protection and place• respectability into the matri• ment of female emigrants became more monial state.(54) and more successful, Chisholm began to plan on a larger scale. To assist her, Archibald Chisholm joined her in Sydney tected and friendless females in 1845; they were to go on a tour of who have latterly been landed in the colony to accumulate a series of such numbers upon our shores.(57) biographies of the settlers. This col• Merewether explained that the prob• lection was intended to convince people lems were due to widescale flouting in the mother country of the need to of the inadequate government regula• form a Family Colonization Loan Society, tions aimed at the protection of and to elicit financial support for it. female immigrants during the voyage Their initial objective accomplished and the first few days in port. (ultimately they collected almost 700 Chisholm's "singlehanded" efforts biographies),(56) they sailed for England toward the protection and placement in 1846, leaving considerable popular of these women had put the agent in support behind them in Australia. In her debt. "She has deserved my thanks England, Chisholm met a number of in my official capacity, and I am times with the Colonial Office officials anxious thus to record them."(58) He and the Colonial Land and Emigration also pointed out that they were in• Commissioners, who were favourably im• debted to Chisholm for her work in pressed . creating public support for the estab- 1ishment of a series of government This was not her first contact with the depots throughout the colony to re• reformers and officials of England. She ceive immigrants. These depots, sup• had already figured in various reports ported locally, would be part of a from as an expert on network of associations through which problems the Colonial Land and Emigra• large groups of immigrants could be tion Commissioners had been concerned conveyed from the ports to the interior with for some time. where they would be employed. Mere• J wether hoped that the "foundations of Chisholm's influence upon the local several such institutions" which had officials was considerable. The agent been laid by Chisholm would be the for immigration to New South Wales, basis for such a system throughout the Francis L.S. Merewether, wrote in his country.(59) Report for 1842 that: I cannot conclude this Report, The benefits of Chisholm's work extended without making known to your beyond New South Wales, Merewether re• Excellency the grateful sense minded his superiors, and would assist which I entertain, and which, I the homeland as well. If emigration think, the public at large must were to be "a great national measure entertain with me, of disinter• for the relief of a distressed popula• ested exertions made by Mrs. tion at home, and for the establishment Chisholm in favour of the unpro• abroad of dependent communities," he could not but anticipate from pro• strong criticism of the conditions cedures established by Chisholm "the aboard emigrant ships. She began by greatest possible advantage to the pointing out that she believed that colony as the recipient of the redundant "immigration was mutually beneficial to labour of the mother country."(60) the immigrant and to the colony." Her assertion that "the poorer classes con• siderably improve their circumstances The importance of Chisholm's system of by coming to this colony"(64)was sup• depots and associations in efficient ported by a large number of "voluntary and upright peopling of the country• statements" or biographies of settlers. side was considerable, but it could not Chisholm flatly refused to approve of be expected to solve the problems any system of forced repayment for occasioned by widespread abuses in the assisted passages. She felt that if an emigrant trade, however well it les• immigrant had worked in the colony for sened the resultant hardships. The four years, the cost of the passage had extent of abuses and official concern been more than repaid. She suggested over them was reflected in an 1842 in• that, should a repayment scheme be put quiry into allegations of immorality into effect, the immigrant's employer against surgeons and captains of emi• should repay half of the amount, saying, grant ships. A wide variety of abuses . . . indeed, I consider that money was revealed. Unsuitable women were expended upon immigration is a frequently sent out and the conditions profitable investment for the col• for 'ruin' of those who were still re• ony and for the mother country. spectable upon sailing, were rife. The emigrant trade, never particularly pristine, had by the early 1840s be• Speaking specifically to the system of come "disgraceful" in the blatancy of female migration, she had a number of its abuses.(61)Evidence of widespread proposals. She advocated that single fraud, violation of regulations, graft, women be "sent under the guardianship and speculative practices was given by of respectable ladies who would exer• various officials. Considered to be cise parental control over them." especially troublesome was the flouting Such ladies would be easily found as, of "protective" regulations governing say, widows of clergymen and military conditions under which women emigra• officers, and "might be desirous to ted. (62) make an addition to their income" while performing their duty. She In her testimony before the Select Com• suggested that matrons be gradually mittee on Immigration of the Legislative accustomed to their jobs, by super• Council of New South Wales in 1845 vising fifty women the first voyage, Chisholm presented her carefully thought- increasing on subsequent trips.(65) out views on emigration,(63)including a She also proposed to exclude single circumstances; under a good system men from emigrant ships carrying single the very best girls would emi• women, preferring a system of strict grate. (68) sexual segregation to the prevailing It is precisely upon these assumptions system of attaching single women to and recommendations that the work of families on board ship. She reminded the various groups and individuals the Committee that even under good aimed at relieving the plight of the circumstances, people entrusted with distressed gentlewomen in Britain was young girls "frequently neglect the carried out, throughout the last half girls and care nothing about them; they of the nineteenth century and the first have no patience with the young women, half of the twentieth. and turn them off as soon as they can."(66) During Caroline Chisholm's stay in England, she became much involved with Chisholm believed that under the present a number of reformers and philan• system, it was impossible to get enough thropists, and developed admirers in women of respectable character to come those circles, including Lord Shaftes• to Australia, even if it had not been bury and Sidney Herbert, who became subject to the many abuses and frauds patrons of Chisholm's Family Colonisa• that it was. It simply did not offer tion Loan Society. Others who shared respectable women enough protection. her views advocated them publicly and She claimed that: privately. Sir George Stephen, testi• . . . great numbers of young fying before the Select Committee on women of good character would be the Passengers' Act,(69)advocated the willing to come out, under the kind of practices preached by Chisholm. charge of a respectable lady, He discussed the persistent problem of whose friends would not for a mom• protection of female migrants. Emi• ent entertain the idea of placing grants of both sexes were still subject them under the charge of families to a wide variety of frauds and abuses of whom they could know nothing un• in the seaport towns. Sanitary con• til they met them on board ship.(67) ditions on ships were often deplorable. When asked again, "Do you think re• Worse still, men and women who were spectable girls would come out?" she strangers to each other were not in• responded with some impatience, frequently berthed together in a space Certainly I do think so. There are only a yard wide. There was no privacy. thousands of young females in the United Kingdom, daughters of highly Stephens suggested three measures to respectable persons, who must earn rectify the situation. The first was their own living, and they would the establishment of a system of emi• come to the colony to better their grant homes, under government supervis- ion, with regular inspection and final time in 1866. In 1867 she was licensing. The second was the use of awarded a civil list pension. She the Government Emigration Office as the died at Fulham in 1877; her husband sole authorised booking agency. Third died five months later and was buried was the establishment on board ship of bes i de her.(73) a rigid system of sexual segregation, with the use of bulkheads or partitions In assessing the meaning of her work, below decks.(70) later historians have credited her with establishing "the dignity of Many of the kind of reforms Stephens and womanhood in New South Wales."(74) others advocated were associated with Chisholm's work involved a curious the colonisation movement flourishing in combination of feminine dignity and England in the 1850s... Caroline Chisholm the violation of behavioural norms for was at the centre of the movement, and women of her position in society. Her her methods were considered exemplary. devotion to the ideal of the family, Her Family Colonisation and Loan Society the very basis of her society, allowed sent the first shipment of colonists to her to enter areas of life unthinkable Australia in September of 1850; it was for most ladies. Her belief that her an occasion for rejoicing. The Society, activities were divinely inspired was like its founder,' functioned as a model also an important factor in allowing for emigration. The ships, some of her to do this difficult and unortho• which were especially built to dox work. While she never questioned Chisholm's specifications, had ade• the assumptions prevailing about the quate ventilation, proper sanitary role of women in society, she said in facilities and were adequately one of her public lectures that she staffed and supplied. Consequently, had indeed: the rate of sickness and mortality . . . felt the inconvenience of were lowered. One of the ships built the Victorian attitudes towards for the Society by W.S. Lindsay, a women. It was that which pre• ship-builder interested in social vented her from taking action work, was named the "Caroline during the days of doubt before Chisholm."(71)Chisholm was widely the Home was established, and it lauded; among those singing her also prevented her from making praises was an anonymous poet who more active efforts to publish hailed her as "a second in bon• the voluntary statements in New net shawl."(72) South Wales.(75)

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The ordinary men and women she helped offer additional testimony of the value of her work. As the voluntary statements indicate, they were on the whole pleased with their new circum• stances, particularly the quantity and quality of the diet. As one set• NOTES tler assessed the situation, "I would 1. Monica Glory Page, A study of emigration from Great Britain, 1802-1860, not go back again--1 know what England University of London, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1931, p. 1. 2. 'Philanthropists' is used here in a broad sense, as it was in the period is. Old England is a fine place for discussed. As Owen's English philanthropy, I66O-I96O (Cambridge, 1961*) explains, Victorians used the terms 'philanthropist' and 'humani• the rich, but the Lord help the tarian' almost interchangeably. Owen does not focus on emigration as a field of philanthropic endeavour, despite its popularity as a remedy for poor."(76) The availability of work the evils of the day. in the colonies and the constant demand 3. Page, p. 117. for women as wives and mothers as well <(. An extremely sentimental poem "inscribed to the memory of her by whom and as workers gave women of the working for whom I become a poet" which was quite popular. (London, 1392, 6th ed i t i on) . classes the opportunity to become up• 5. Although initially somewhat of a maverick, Wakefield's theories became wardly mobile, not only materially but important in the formulation of policy to a much greater extent in the Australian colonies than in the Canadian, especially by the 1830s. One morally. In the eyes of the reformers contemporary writer attributed the prosperity of New South Wales to the use of the Wakefield system, while the neighbouring colony of West and philanthropists and to some extent, Australia was poor because it had not used it. See C.W. Diike, Greater Britain: a record of travel in English-speaking countries during 1866- the officials, the direction which "1867. (New York, 1869) p. 35cT Edward Gibbon Wakefield, A letter from women of the labouring classes should Sydney and other writings, (London, 1829), P- 7- follow was towards the goal of the 6. Wdkefield, p. 112. lady--a working, not an idle, lady, 7. Ibid., p. 126. 8. Ibid., p. 173. but a lady nonetheless, for who else 9. Ibid. , p. 179. 10. Ibid., p. 252. could (by definition) be a proper wife I 1 . (London, I8I9), p. 20. !2. William Kingston, How to emigrate, or the British colonists, a tale for and mother in the family, which was the ail classes, with an appendix, forming a complete manual for intending cornerstone of Victorian society. colonists, and for those who may wish to assist them. (London, 1850), p. 37. E. Guillet, The great migration, the Atlantic crossing by sailing-ship 50. Ibid., p. 1*3. 51. ibid., p. 1*9. since 1770, (London, 1937), pp. 35-6.

52. Caroline Chisholm, Prospectus of a work to be entitled voluntary informa• I*. Page, p. 158. tion from the people of New South Wales, p. viii, as cited in Kiddle, op.

Maria Rye, "The emigration of educated women," Transact ions, (National 15. cit., p. 38: — Association for the Promotion of Social Science" 1861), p. 11. 53. Chisholm, Female immigration, p. 48. 16. Ibid., p. 9- 5*. Mackenzie, pp. 105-6. 55. Ibid., p. 62. 17. Kingston, p. 70. St. Kiddle, p. 69. 18. Ibid., p. 185. 57. Letter from Herewether to Sir George Gipps, 23 May 1842, Reports of emi• gration agents of Canada, New Brunswick, and New South Wales, to Gover• 19. Ellen Layton, "On the superintendence of female emigrants," Transact ions nors and Councils of those colonies, British Parliamentary Papers, 1843 (National Association for the Promotion of Social Sciences, 1863), P• 616. (109) XXXIV, pp. 43-4.

20. Ibid. Ibid., p. 617. 58. Ibid. 59- Ibid. 22. Kingston, p. 153. 60. Ibid.

23- "The amateur emigrant," From Scotland to Silverado (Cambridge, Harvard, 61. H.H. Browne, Waterpolice magistrate, member of the Immigration Board. (1879) 1966), p. 16. Ibid., p. 99-

Eneas Mackenzie, Memoirs of Mrs. Caroline Chisholm, with an account of 4 September 1845. Report of the select committee on immigration, Commitee her philanthropic labours in India, Australia, and England, to which is of the Legislative Council of New South Wales. British Parliamentary added a history of the family Colonisation Loan Society. (London, 1852, Papers. 1846 (418) XXIX p. 225. 2nd edition), p. vi.

63. Ibid., p. 32. Although Chisholm was well known to contemporaries, relatively little attention has been paid to her work by later writers. She is footnoted 64. Repayment by the emigrant had been a fundamental part of policy since the in 0-R. McGregor's "The social position of women in England, 1850-1911*, a time of the 1826 Report of the Select Committee on Emigration from the bibliography," British Journal of Sociology, Vol. VI (March 1955), pp. United Kingdom headed by Uilmot Horton, (1826 (404) IV) and remained so 1*8-60. The main published sources on Chisholm are Eneas Mackenzie, until well after the turn of the century. The female emigration societies Memoirs of Mrs. Caroline Chisholm • . . (1852), and Margaret Kiddle, of the 1850s and well Into the 20th century were particularly insistent Caroline Chisholm (Helbourne, 1950). Monica Page's unpublished Ph.D. upon repayment. Otherwise, policy was sometimes reflected in practice, dissertation,"A study of emigration from Great Britain, 1802-1860" (Uni• sometimes not, depending on what body advanced the money and other circum• 1931) versity of London, contains references to Chisholm's work, relating stances. Ibid. it to conditions in Britain.

26. Mackenzie, p. i. 27. Ibid. 65. Ibid.

28. pp. 3-4. 66. British Parliamentary Papers, 1846 (418) XXIX p. 225.

30. London Times, 20 March, 181*1. 67. Ibid. 68. Ibid.

31. British Parliamentary Papers, 1841 (29I1) XXI, p. 395. 69- 13 June 1851. 1851 (632) XIX, p. 298. The Passenger Acts did not apply to the Australian traffic until 1852. 32. Ibid. 33. Ibid. 70. Ibid. , 18 June 1851. 34. Caroline Chisholm, Female immigration considered in a brief account of the Sydney Immigrants' Home (Sydney, 181*2) , pp. 101-2. 71. Kiddle, p. 161.

35. Ibid. p. 2. 36. Ibid. 72. "A carol on Caroline Chisholm," Punch, Vol. XXV, August 20, 1853, p 71.

37. Ibid. P- 7. 38. Ibid. 73. "Caroline Chisholm, the emigrants' friend," Dictionary of National Biography, Volume X, (New York, 1887), p. 261. 39- ". . . as I commenced my work, the "establishment of the Home," without private ends, I now end the same without any feeling of hostility against 74. Wi11iam Hancock, Australia, (London, 1930) p. 39. any individual. My late occupation made me the possessor of many secrets, but I pledge myself to use them honorab1y." Ibid. , p. vi i i. 75. Kiddle, p. 93.

40. Ibid. 1*1 . Ibid. , p. 1*. 76. Ellen W. , from London; Sydney, March 11,1846, as cited in Kiddle, p. 251. (Appendix of voluntary statements). For others, see Chisholm's 1)2. Ibid., pp. 5-10. 43. Ibid., p. 7. Comfort for the poorl Meat three times a day! voluntary information from the people of New South Wales, collected in that colony by Mrs. Chisholm ill*. Margaret Kiddle, Caroline Chisholm (, 1957, 2nd edition), p. 31. in 1845-46. (London, 1847).

45. Mackenzie, p. 64. 1*6. Ibid. , p. 95.

1.7. Chisholm, Female immigration, p. 37.

I<8. Ibid. 1*9. Ibid.