A Second Moses in Bonnet and Shawl: Caroline Chisholm, 1808–1877
Caroline Chisholm was a Victorian philanthropist designated by the Australian Encyclopaedia as ‘the greatest of women pioneers in the history of Australia’. She was born in Northampton in 1808, the daughter of William Jones, hog-jobber of some substance. She married Archibald Chisholm in 1830, a lieutenant in the East India Company Army, ten years her senior, on the understanding that she be allowed to undertake philanthropic works. It is assumed she converted to her husband's Roman Catholic faith either just before or after the marriage. It was in Madras, where her husband was based, that her philanthropic endeavours began and she founded a ‘school of industry for the daughters of European soldiers’. The school educated the sadly-neglected girls in general education and domestic duties.