A Sydney girl's school in the 1830s.

Schools for girls were very occasionally mentioned in records of the early days of the settlement in Sydney. There were in the colony of New South Wales a number of 'private' schools for boys. There was the Cape's School in King Street and then Sydney College. The Rev. John Dunmore Lang established the Australian College for Presbyterian boys. William Woolls ran a school at Parramatta and there was The Kings School which was established in the same town.

Girls usually had to take their chances for education with a governess if their parents could find and had the money to pay for one. For example Mrs Hannibal Macarthur brought out a governess from England and she promptly married James Atkinson a successful agriculturist. The other alternative means of education for the girls was to be taught by their mothers to read and write.

In the early 1830s Mrs. Evans, the wife of the surveyor and explorer George Evans established a boarding school for girls in Sydney. This was established to boost the family income. George Evans had established a book and stationery shop after his return to New South Wales from England. There was some competition because their were four other bookshops in the town. George Evans became, in addition, a teacher of art at The Kings School at Parramatta and had to make a regular trip by boat up the harbour and river to Parramatta. There is no record that he taught art at his wife's school although this is quite likely.

Annabella Boswell in her Journal * describes her experiences as a border at the school run by Mrs Evans. Annabella's father was a settler about sixty miles from Bathurst, New South Wales and there was difficulty in securing a governess. The little eight year old Annabella Innes was sent to school in Sydney.

She writes as follows:

   In 1834 I found myself settled in Bridge Street Sydney under the
   care of Mrs.. Evans, and her friend and partner Miss Ferris. Mr.
   Evans had a large bookseller's and Stationer's shop and we occupied
   the rest of the house which at that time was thought handsome and in
   a fashionable street. Our house faced the old Government stores or
   Depot, and close by flowed the Tank Stream, now arched over and made
   into the main drain of that portion of the populous city.

   We were quite near Government House and Macquarie Place, where
   lived the leading public officials: these houses were back from the
   street and had pretty gardens and deep verandahs, sheltered by
   climbing roses and other flowering plants. I do not remember being
   in old Government House, but I made many happy visits to our kind
   friends Mr. and Mrs. McLeay at Macquarie Place. He was then Colonial
   Secretary: one of his daughters married my Uncle Major Innes.

Holidays approached and plans were being made for the girls to go home but not Annabella whose parents lived sixty miles out of Bathurst. She was to remain at the school but before the girls left for their holiday, Annabella continued her story.

   However there was one of Sydney's torrential downpours. The Tank
   Stream overflowed its banks and rushed into the basement of our
   house. Late one Saturday night an alarm was raised that the
   foundations were giving away. Many houses were flooded and people
   were being taken out of the water.

   I really do not know if we were in any danger, but a party of
   soldiers came to our rescue. No doubt it was great fun for some of
   the young officers, and I know that some girls enjoyed it too, and
   were delighted to be carried off in their strong arms to. a place of
   safety. I was a miserable little urchin, but of course I had to be
   rescued too. I was one of four who were kindly received by Mr. and
   Mrs. W.H. McKenzie of the Bank of Australasia. She was a Miss
   Hawkins, a friend of my mother's. The rain continued to fall in
   torrents, the old guard house was swept away and part of the
   Barracks' wall came down and damage was done everywhere. It was a
   terrible Easter Sunday for many and we were comfortably housed and
   the next day I was sent to Mrs. McLeay and in her house spent one of
   the happiest times of my young life; all were so kind and clever,
   and all their surroundings were so refined and luxurious in
   comparison with anything I who had been bred in the bush, was
   accustomed to.

Letter writing was one of the skills that a school girl had to learn. Annabella certainly managed to express herself well in this art form as the following letter shows written shortly after her return home from school in Sydney.

   It gives me very great pleasure to write to you my dear uncle,
   and papa tells me I must send you the little drawing I have just
   finished this afternoon. Had I known it was to be sent to you I
   would have taken more pains with it.

   We have a governess now. I like it much better than being at
   school, because I do not require to leave dear papa and mamma. I am
   learning to play the guitar; I found it very difficult at first. I
   made my fingers so sore and my arms ache, but now my fingers have
   got quite hard at the points, and am getting on very well with it. I
   can play the accompaniment to 'Ye Banks and Braes' and to 'Ah
   vousdirais', 'Rondo' and a few other little airs. I am reading the
   history of England, and have got the length of James the First who
   began the reign of the Smarts in England. I like my studies very
   much indeed; they are a pleasure to me. Miss Willis explains them to
   me as I go on, which makes them easy to be understood. I think I
   like geography better than any of the other lessons. I have gone
   through the four quarters of the globe with Miss Willis, and I begin
   again on Monday at the map of Europe and through each country,
   beginning with England. My sister gets on well with her lessons. She
   writes very well indeed, and seems to have great taste for drawing.
   She is also learning to play the guitar. I wrote to Grand-mamma in
   December and since then have written to aunt Jane. They cannot have
   got my letters yet, and very much pleased I shall be when my aunt
   writes to me. I intend to write to one of my aunts soon. I hope my
   dear little cousins are well. I suppose Gordina begins to run about
   now. Papa, Mamma and Margaret join me in sending their love to you
   and my aunt, and kisses to my dear cousins. Goodbye, my dear
   uncle--Believe me, etc.

S.A.C. Innes

Interestingly she signs her letters with her initials and surname, not 'with love from Annabella or a similar ending such as we would use today. All her letters were copied into a letter book, as was the common practice at the time. They did not have such present day luxuries as carbon paper or photocopiers.

This letter tells us something about the studies undertaken by little girls at this time. Reading and writing including spelling were basic and history and geography as well drawing were the usual subjects. They also learnt music at school and at home and as at his time her family did not have a piano the playing of which soon became a necessary accomplishment for any respectable young lady. The Innes house on a newly developed property was not a luxurious mansion being a house with five rooms. The kitchens servants rooms and stables were all detached. Their servants were all 'prisoners' as Annabella calls them, not convicts.

At school Annabella learnt plain sewing, a very necessary skill for women before the invention of the sewing machine. They made all their clothes by hand, not only their own dresses and undergarments, but also the shirts for the men. Annabella does not mention arithmetic. This was essentially a male skill but girls would need to be able to add and subtract to use money and division in pounds, shillings and pence was not always an easy science and was learnt only after many tears were shed.

Annabella moved with the school run by Mrs. Evans to a new building after the Bridge Street building was flooded by the Tank Stream. She continued her story of school life:

   This new school was in a large convenient detached house standing
   in its own grounds. Albion House, Miller's Point, Darling Harbour
   was the new address ... I was not happy there. I still had my
   playfellow Anna Cox and Mrs. Evans' eldest girl. Mr. Evans had
   married before and a daughter of his about sixteen was one of the
   elder girls. She was always gentle and good to the little ones but
   the school increased greatly and there were too many big girls, some
   vulgar and disagreeable. Such a mixture was a great mistake; they
   persecuted the little ones and one very bad thing was their telling
   of ghost stories and murders and declaring that the house was
   haunted. Then when all were trembling with fear and excitement
   someone was dared to go upstairs, or one of the little ones was sent
   a message and made to go alone ...

   There was one horrid girl who used to slap me. One day I struck
   her in return, and we had a regular fight. I had never been in a
   passion before and never have since; murder was in my heart and fury
   in my eyes. I was only eight and she was twelve or fourteen, but I
   was victorious and thoroughly ashamed for long after.

As Annabella wrote this comment about being ashamed many years later she probably added that in as nice piece of moralising for the benefit of her own young relations for whom she was writing up her journal. There are many stories about boys fighting battles at school but this one at the school run by Mrs. Evans is probably unique. Annabella's account would appear to be the only record of a young girl writing about her actual experiences at a girl's boarding school in early Sydney.

The school when operating in Albion House was sometimes referred to as 'A Finishing School for Girls' and this probably accounts for the large increase of pupils especially the older girls.

The education of girls in the early days of the colony was catered for although the schools were restricted to the better off section of the colony. There was, therefore, at least one boarding school for girls in Sydney in the 1830s. It continued until the Evans family went to live in Van Diemen's Land in 1844 when George Evans settled at Warwick Lodge his home in New Town just out of Hobart. Mrs. Evans died five years later and there is no record of her establishing another school for the girls of that island colony.

BOSWELL, Annabella.

Annabella Boswell's Journal An Account of Early Port Macquarie

Sydney, Angus & Robinson, 1981