Caroline Frances Thomas nee Husband is notable for her diary which provides an insight into the joys and sorrows of family life in London and colonial New South Wales
Caroline Frances Husband was born on 25 November 1832. She was baptised on 13 February 1834 at Stoke Damerel, Devon, her parents recorded as James and Caroline Jane Husband, their abode recorded as Stoke and her father's occupation Solicitor.[1] The parish of Stoke Damerel includes Devonport (formerly named Plymouth Dock) and adjoins the borough of Plymouth.[2] Devonport ("Davenport") was given as Caroline's birth place in the 1851 census.
Caroline was visiting John Reeves, merchant, and his family at Kings Norton, Worcestershire at the time of the 1841 census.[3] Her father James Husband, attorney, age 35-39, was at St Clement Danes Middlesex.[4] Her mother, her siblings and servants, were at Stoke Damerel in the 1841 census.[5]
In the 1851 census, Caroline, age 18, was living with her parents, siblings and 3 servants at Oak Lodge, Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, Middlesex, England[6]
Caroline's diary begins with the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. The nineteen year old Caroline had a constant round of outings accompanied by her younger sister, Cordy, in and around London. However her father, lawyer James Husband, fell on hard times and fled his Hampstead Hill house in England with debt-collectors in pursuit.[7] He came to Sydney on the Bank of England under the assumed name of Holland.[8]
Not long afterwards, in December 1852 Caroline arrived in Sydney, New South Wales with her mother and siblings on the General Hewett.[9]
Because of her family’s poor financial standing on arrival in Sydney in 1852, Caroline had a short engagement as a governess for Reverend WM Cowper at Stroud, the settlement for the Australian Agricultural Company in New South Wales.[7] While there, she wrote, "Want someone to love who will love me. Feel lonely".
Her unhappiness at Stroud was short-lived because her father successfully resumed his career in law in Sydney, and the "Husband girls, Caroline, Cordy and Fanny, attracted the cream of Sydney’s eligible bachelors as a string of would-be suitors. Sydney’s shortage of suitable women made the family’s modest lodgings at Woolloomooloo a honey pot, a coterie of potential wives. The sisters had a busy schedule of excursions, opera, theatre, balls, parties and social callings in Sydney, topped off with regular church attendances. ... regular excursions with young men to Bondi, Coogee, Parramatta, and Manly Beach and frequent mentions of boating and yachting excursions on Sydney Harbour, cricket matches and Regattas on Port Jackson".[7]
Caroline married Henry Arding Thomas on 14 May 1856 at St. James's Church, Sydney. Their marriage announcement was in the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday 16 May 1856:
They had children:[11]
Her husband Henry purchased three rural properties, Buckingbah near Wellington in central NSW, Saumarez near Armidale, and finally Wivenhoe at Camden, and Caroline's diary describes the family's move to each of them.
Five of Caroline's eleven children died in infancy or childhood: Harry at 14, Bertha at 5, Leslie at 14, Power at 10, and Florence at 6 months. There are five diary entries, mentioning seven funerals. Caroline did not attend any of them, but visited the graves of her two children, Bertha and Florence some days afterwards. Caroline was devastated at the loss of her beloved younger sister Cordy from smallpox early in the Siege of Lucknow in India in 1857.[12]
Death: Caroline passed away on 11 January 1903 at Neutral Bay, New South Wales, Australia. She was buried in Cobbitty Anglican Church Cemetery, Cobbitty.[13]
Obituary, Camden News (NSW), Thursday 15 January 1903:
Some of the personal diaries kept by Caroline Thomas (née Husband) are in the manuscript collection of the Society of Australian Genealogists. "These are part of a larger series still in private hands. Caroline Husband began keeping a diary in 1851 when she was a 19 year old enjoying a whirl of London social events against the backdrop of the Great Exhibition. Her accounts follow her family’s journey on the General Hewitt to Sydney, her time as a governess in Stroud, then her courtship and marriage to Henry Arding Thomas in 1855. As she follows Henry and their growing family to Wellington, Armidale and finally Camden her diaries give us a valuable and personal insight into daily life for a woman in late 19th century NSW."[14]
This week's featured connections are Redheads: Caroline is 19 degrees from Catherine of Aragón, 23 degrees from Clara Bow, 23 degrees from Julia Gillard, 20 degrees from Nancy Hart, 21 degrees from Rutherford Hayes, 16 degrees from Rita Hayworth, 22 degrees from Leonard Kelly, 17 degrees from Rose Leslie, 18 degrees from Damian Lewis, 25 degrees from Maureen O'Hara, 22 degrees from Jopie Schaft and 36 degrees from Eirik Thorvaldsson on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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Categories: Camden, New South Wales | Stroud, New South Wales | Diarists | St Paul's Anglican Cemetery, Cobbitty, New South Wales | Stoke Damerel, Devon | Australia, Colonial Notables | Notables