caroline mallandaine + thomas westgarth
Caroline was born on 1 September 1824 and baptised at Trichinopoly, India on 14 February 1825, the daughter of Edward Mallandaine and Mary Smith. When Caroline was eight years old, her mother died of a fever and the family left India and returned to England but four years later, the family was on the move again and Caroline spent her remaining childhood years in France.
Caroline left the family home in Dinan, France when she was 18 years old and first took a situation in Angers before travelling back to England to find work as a teacher and governess. She appears in the 1851 Census at 19 Camden Place in Walcot, now a suburb of Bath, working as a French teacher at a small girls school. She left England in 1860 and sailed from Gravesend Dock to Victoria in what was then the colony of Vancouver Island where her brother Edward lived. Her arrival was recorded in The Colonist newspaper on 26 January 1861: Passengers on Princess Royal from London 122 days Captain Trevitt: Miss Mallandaine. Despite the move, Caroline remained in contact with family in England as at least one envelope cover found in an online stamp auction confirms.
One year later, she married Thomas Westgarth at St John’s Church in Victoria on 7 April 1862. Thomas was born in Leith, Scotland on 17 November 1816, the son of John Westgarth and Christian Thomson.
Thomas’ marriage record notes that his occupation was Government Executive Official. He acted for many years as a Boiler Inspector for the Dominion government but also worked for a time in the Land and Works office as a Clerk — possibly to supplement his income. In 1871, the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island entered into Confederation with Canada and this resulted in a redistribution of responsibilities between the new provincial government and the federal government. The following year Thomas wrote to his superiors asking for clarification on his position and was told that authority for his position was to be transferred to the federal government and no assurances could be made as to his future employment. He sought to continue his position in the Land Office but the correspondence on file at the BC Archives does not include a response to his second request.
But it appears that Thomas maintained his position as his occupation was listed as Government Official in the 1881 Census of Victoria but one year later, Thomas submitted his resignation as Inspector of Steam Boats as he and Caroline planned to return to England. They engaged J.P. Davies & Co. to auction their home and its contents and a notice was published in the Daily Colonist on 26 July 1882 advertising the property available including furniture, household items and a ‘choice library of books’. The auction also included their home on View Street and it was described as:
60 feet frontage on View Street with a depth of 120 feet, together with all the improvements thereon, consisting of the one-story Cottage Residence containing 7 rooms. The garden around and back of building contains a choice variety of Flowers, Fruit Trees and Berries. There is a well of good water, well bricked.
In 1891, Caroline and her husband were living at 1 Versailles Road, Penge in South London and Thomas was listed as a Retired Steam Boat Inspector but they were sufficiently well off to employ one domestic servant. Four years later, 78 year old Thomas died at 5 Cintra Park in Norwood, south London on 2 March and left his wife an estate valued at almost £3500.
In a letter to her brother Edward, dated 16 January 1900, Caroline commented on their sister Harriet’s death some 20 years earlier and noted that she objected to the “M’s” paying part of the burial expenses. There is no clear indication of who the M’s are — could it be the family of Edward and Alice Seddon or Cecilia Hawkes and her children or even a completely different branch of the family? From Caroline’s tone, it is obvious that there were ill feelings between her and other members of the family:
‘I do not believe in people insulting & doing you all the harm they can while you live & after death contributing a miserable pittance to your tombstone. The M’s behaved atrociously to Harriet & me I have had nothing to do with them since I returned to Eng altho’ they are most anxious for it.’
Following her husband’s death, Caroline moved to the popular Victorian seaside town of Ramsgate in Kent where she lived in a boarding house at 12 Albion Street along with several other single or widowed women. Under occupation, she was listed as ‘living on her own means’. Caroline remained in Ramsgate until her death in May 1903 and according to the notice published in the Times Colonist, she was an invalid for six months prior to her death. Caroline left an estate valued at £3900 and appointed a local bank manager, John Wenn Cross, and solicitor, Edward Wotton, as executors. Her legacies included £300 to her sister Charlotte, £2000 to her niece Harriet Mallandaine and £200 to her nephew James Mallandaine both of Vancouver Island, Canada. However, her surviving nephews were named Charles and Edward so it is not clear who she intended the money to be paid.
She also left her clothes, jewellery, workbox desk, and dressing case and specified the remainder of possessions should be sold except three cases — a black box, a leather portmanteau, and a wooden case — and their contents which were to be sent to her brother Edward in Canada along with the residue of her estate. There is no mention of the nature of the contents but perhaps they contained family mementos of their father.