Caroline Woolmer Leakey (8 March 1827 – 12 July 1881) was an English writer, whose poetry and only novel (''
The Broad Arrow'', published using the pen name Oliné Keese) were influenced and based on her experience living in
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...
(now
Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
) for five years between 1848 and 1853.
Life
Leakey was born in
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
in the county of
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, England. She was the sixth child of a large religious family of eleven children: her parents were
James Leakey, an artist, and Eliza Hubbard Woolmer. Suffering from ill health most of her life, Leakey was an avid reader, and when her health allowed her, was active in charitable and religious activities.
[Horner, J. C.]
'Leakey, Caroline Woolmer (1827–1881)'
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 11 May 2012.
In 1847, she sailed to the British colony of Van Diemen's Land, to join her sister Eliza, who had migrated to
Hobart Town several years earlier with her clergyman husband, Reverend James Medland. Shortly after her arrival, her health deteriorated and she was bedridden for much of the remainder of her time in the colony. In 1851, she lived for twelve months at the convict settlement of
Port Arthur. When she returned to Hobart, she fell ill again and her family urged her to return to England, which she did in March 1853.
Encouraged by Bishop
Francis Nixon, whom she had lived with in Hobart, to publish her poetry, Leakey published an anthology of poems titled ''Lyra Australis, or Attempts to Sing in a Strange Land'', which was published in London in 1853 and Hobart in 1854.
In March 1857, Leakey began writing a novel, which was published in 1859 in London and in 1860 in Hobart. The novel, ''
The Broad Arrow: Being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham, a Lifer'', was published under the pen name of "Oliné Keese".
[Caroline Woolmer Leaky]
, ''Index of Significant Tasmanian Women'', Department of Premier and Cabinet, Government of Tasmania. ''The Broad Arrow'' is considered a significant social document, and as one of the earliest novels to feature a
convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...
as the main character, was a forerunner of, and influence on, the more well-known ''
For the Term of His Natural Life'' by
Marcus Clarke, who used Leakey's novel as a reference for his book.
After Leakey's death a heavily abridged version of ''The Broad Arrow'' was published. Her original, unabridged version remained out of print until 2019, when it was re-issued.
In 1861, Leakey established a house in Exeter to care for "
fallen women". She wrote numerous religious tracts before she died after an eighteen-month illness in 1881.
Genealogy
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leakey, Caroline
1827 births
1881 deaths
19th-century English novelists
19th-century English poets
19th-century English women writers
English emigrants to colonial Australia
Van Diemen's Land people
English women novelists
English women poets
Caroline
Writers from Exeter
Victorian women writers
Victorian writers