Caroline Chisholm
| Caroline Chisholm | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Caroline Jones 30 May 1808 Northampton, England |
| Died | 25 March 1877 (aged 68) Highgate |
| Occupation | Humanitarian work |
| Known for | Humanitarian work, immigration reform, assisting the local Aboriginal communities |
| Home town | Northampton, England |
| Spouse(s) | Archibald Chisholm |
| Children | 8 children |
Caroline Chisholm (30 May 1808 – 25 March 1877) was a progressive 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her involvement with female immigrant welfare in Australia. She is commemorated on 16 May in the Calendar of saints of the Church of England. There are proposals for the Catholic Church to also recognise her as a saint.
Caroline Chisholm came from a very large family. Her father, William Jones, had been married four times .His first three wives had died in childbirth and from illness. Caroline was William's sixteenth and last child. Her mother, also named Caroline, had seven children. William, who was born in Wootton, a village just south of Northampton, was a pig dealer who bought in and fattened pigs and sold them on. By the time he died in 1814, when Caroline was only six, he was able to leave his wife £500 and several properties to his twelve surviving children. Caroline was born in Northampton and lived with her family at 11 Mayorhold. When she was a young child, her father brought a poor maimed soldier into the house. He pointed out the children's obligations to the man who had fought for them. There is little doubt that this would have had an effect upon the young child, and something she would have remembered in later life. Caroline was 22 in 1830 when she married Archibald Chisholm, a Roman Catholic ten years her senior, serving with East India Company Army. It is believed that Caroline converted to her husband's faith at this time. They were married at the Anglican Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Northampton. The Roman Catholic clergy at that time were not legally empowered to perform wedding services.
Archibald returned to his regiment in Madras, India in January 1832. Caroline joined him there 18 months later. Caroline became aware that the young girls in the barracks were picking up the bad behaviour of the soldiers. She appealed to the Governor of Madras for assistance in establishing a school, but was refused. In 1834 Caroline founded the Female School of Industry for the Daughters of European Soldiers that provided a practical education for the girls. They were given instruction in reading, writing and religion, cooking, housekeeping and nursing. It was not long before the soldiers asked that their wives could also attend the school. Caroline gave birth to two sons, Archibald and William, as well as following her husband around the Indian subcontinent.
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