Top 10 Amazing Facts about Caroline Chisholm

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Caroline Chisholm

Caroline Chisholm by Antoine Claudet by Wikimedia Commons

A 19th-century English humanitarian named Caroline Chisholm (née Caroline Jones; 30 May 1808 – 25 March 1877) is best known for her advocacy of immigrant women’s and families’ welfare in Australia. In the Church of England’s calendar of saints, she is honoured on May 16. The Catholic Church has begun the process of canonizing her; she converted to Catholicism around the time of her marriage and brought up her children in the faith.

1. She was born in England

Elm Street Northampton by Wikimedia Commons

The last of seven children born to her mother and the youngest of at least twelve children of her father, Caroline Jones was born in Northampton, England, in 1808. Caroline was the daughter of William Jones’s fourth wife, Sarah. Caroline’s father, William Jones, had gone through three divorces.

The family resided in Northampton at 11 Mayorhold. William Jones was a pig merchant who fattened young piglets for sale. He was born in Wootton, Northamptonshire. Caroline was six when he passed away in 1814. He gave his wife £500 and left his twelve surviving children numerous properties.

2. She married a man who was ten years her senior

Caroline, who was 22 at the time, wed Archibald Chisholm, who was ten years her senior, on December 27, 1830. In addition to being a Roman Catholic, he was an officer in the Madras Army of the East India Company.

Caroline began to follow his faith around this time, and they brought up their kids as Catholics. They were wed in the Chapel of England church The Holy Sepulchre in Northampton. Before the Marriage Act of 1836, marriages performed by Roman Catholic clergy were not recognized.

3. She started a school when she was in India

In January 1832, Chisholm’s husband travelled back to Madras to rejoin his regiment. After 18 months, she moved in with him there. Chisholm saw that young girls were imitating the bad behaviour of the soldiers as they grew up in the barracks with their families.

She established the Female School of Industry for the Daughters of European Soldiers in 1834, giving such girls a hands-on education. They received training in nursing, housekeeping, cooking, writing, reading, and religion. Soon, soldiers enquired about the possibility of sending their wives to school.

Chisholm gave birth to two sons named William and Archibald when she was residing in India. The family travelled with her husband on business throughout the Indian continent.

4. Chisholm chose to stay in Australia because of the favourable climate

Due to his poor health, Captain Archibald Chisholm was given a two-year leave of absence in 1838. The family felt that the climate in Australia would be better for his health than returning to England, so they sailed there on the Emerald Isle, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales, in October 1838. Family members relocated to nearby Windsor.

5. She started a women’s shelter for immigrants 

Caroline Chisholm Cottage by New South Wales from Wikimedia Commons

Chisholm and her husband learned about the challenging circumstances encountered by immigrants coming into the colony on visits to Sydney. They were especially worried about the young women who were arriving and had no means of support, no family or friends, and no employment to go to. To live, many people turned to prostitution.

Chisholm assisted in locating long-term housing for these young women by placing them in shelters like her own. With the support of the governess, she established an organization to provide a sanctuary for immigrant women. Captain Chisholm urged his wife to carry on with her charitable endeavours even after he left for his regiment in India in 1840. She organized the first house for young women in Sydney and subsequent homes in various remote towns.

6. Chisholm rented two terraced homes in East Maitland in March 1842

Caroline Chisholm Cottage by New South Wales by Wikimedia Commons

Chisholm rented two terraced homes in East Maitland in March 1842. She combined them to create a single cottage that would serve as a shelter for immigrants who were on the streets and had come to the Hunter region in search of jobs.

It is the only structure in New South Wales that is so closely linked to Chisholm and is now known as Caroline Chisholm Cottage. The cottage, which dates back to the 1830s, provides a unique illustration of early working-class housing in New South Wales.

7. She placed over 11,000 people in homes and jobs

When Chisholm lived in Australia for seven years, she helped almost 11,000 people find housing and employment. She rose to fame and won a lot of admiration. She was asked to testify before two committees of the Legislative Council.

8. She worked without accepting money from individuals 

New South Wales by jason goulding from Wikimedia Commons

Chisholm worked in New South Wales without accepting funding from specific people or groups because she preferred to be autonomous. She didn’t want to be reliant on any political or religious institution. The families and girls Chisholm assisted came from various socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. She obtained funding for the residences through individual subscriptions.

9. Chisholm founded the Family Colonisation Loan Society

Chisholm thought that reading letters from pioneers who already lived in the colony was the only way to stimulate emigration from England to Australia. In a pamphlet titled Comfort for the Poor – Meat Three Times a Day, the couple distributed some of those claims in England. Some of the phrases were utilized by author Charles Dickens in his brand-new publication Household Words. In 1848, when the couple was living in London, Caroline Agnes Chisholm was born.

From her residence in Islington’s Charlton Crescent, Chisholm founded the Family Colonisation Loan Society in 1849 with the assistance of Lord Shaftesbury, Sir Sidney Herbert, and Wyndham Harding FRS. The Society’s goal was to encourage emigration by lending half of the fare’s price (the emigrant to provide the other half). A foreigner moving to Australia for two years would be required to pay back the loan.

10. A lot of land was given to Emigrants because of her 

Australian Land by Professor Lamblichus from Wikimedia Commons

Chisholm’s failing health forced the family to return to Sydney in 1858. Her health became better. The end of 1859 to early 1860 saw Chisholm deliver four political lectures.

She urged the distribution of land so that immigrant families may start small farms. She thought that taking such a step would increase stability among the colonial newcomers. Little Joe, a novella by Chisholm, was serialized in the neighbourhood newspaper.

In 1865, her husband returned to England with the younger kids. In 1866, Archibald Sr. joined his mother when she left for England. On March 25, 1877, Chisholm passed away in London, England; her husband passed away in August of the same year. Of their eight children, five have lived to adulthood.

The body of Chisholm spent the night in the Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Thomas in her hometown of Northampton. In the Billing Road Cemetery, she and her husband are interred in the same cemetery.