Hannah Villiers Boyd Hannah Villiers Boyd i(A147232 works by)
Born: Established: 1807
c
Ireland,
c
Western Europe, Europe,
; Died: Ceased: ca. 1865
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

'One of the earliest women protagonists in Australian cultural history' (Paddle, p.152), Hannah Villiers Boyd was the author of two books in the mid-19th century - Letters on Education; Addressed to a Friend in the Bush of Australia (1848) and A Voice from Australia (1851). Born into a middle-class Irish family she was educated at home, although she claimed that her parents were able to provide a musical training through a travelling musician at one stage. She also indicates that they were able to send her to study for a year in Paris and Berlin. In her first publication Boyd claims, however, that her educational process was largely one of 'self-culture.'

After the breakdown of her marriage in 1836 (aged 29), Boyd became a governess, while also supporting two children on her own. She emigrated to Australia in 1841 a part of the Irish diaspora that left Ireland as a result of economic depression and the Great Famine. It was during this period that she wrote her two books. In the first publication, which comprises seven letters inscribed to Mrs Hannibal MacArthur, Boyd's instruction for the educational training of young ladies who live in remote areas of Australia had been based on the eleven years she had by then spent as a governess (ctd. "Domestic Intelligence," p.3).

Although she returned to Ireland in 1854, settling in Dublin, Boyd is thought to have come back to Australia for an unknown period of time later that decade.





Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Boyd was sister of John Scott Vandeleur, the founder of the Rathlahine Co-operative in Ireland in the 1830s.

  • Further Reference:
    • "Domestic Intelligence." Moreton Bay Courier 11 March 1848, 3 (sighted 23/5/2012).
    • "Estate: "Vandeleur (Rathlaheen)" Landed Estates Database (sighted 23/5/2012).
    • "Review of A Voice from Australia, and Memoirs of Mrs Caroline Chisholm." Athenaeum 21 Aug. 1852, pp. 850-851.



Last amended 5 Jun 2012 16:46:14
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