Elizabeth Boake

I have been reading a book and came upon a Quaker reference. Well, as those who know me know well - off I go investigating following down the byways which seem to always yield interesting knowledge and that increase my understanding of Quaker history. I looked on ancestry trees first and sure enough found the lady in question - and the tree was very interesting. I know there are lots of problems with public trees on that site but I am really grateful for those who make their trees available. So thank you once more to Donnie whose tree provided me with much information and had a photo of the lady in question.

From this I googled and found, and Donnie has kindly also told me, a book "The Beech tree" by Dorothy Boake Panzer. It is available to read online at archive.org It would seem that there were Boake early Quakers in Cumberland, and that through persecution and lack of local support they moved to the Isle of Man and then to Ireland. This book explains how land in Ireland became available to the English. It also suggests that isolation from meeting houses might have been a reason for some Quakers to leave the faith. A very interesting read.

Now to the book that started this journey. "The Governesses letters from the colonies 1862-1882" by Patricia Clarke" published 1985. On page 78 there is a footnote "Elizabeth Boake and her brother Henry were born in Dublin, two of eleven children of Irish Quakers, William and Anne (Capel) Boake. Another brother, Barcroft, was the father of Australian poet and surveyor, Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (1866-1892)."

The Female Middle Class Emigration Society was set up in the 1860s to support educated women to emigrate in the search for employment. Mostly this was loans. Work for these ladies was hard to find in the UK. The ladies repaid the loans and many wrote letters to the society. At the time that this book was written the records of the FMCES were held by the Fawcett Library,  City of London Polytechnic. The scheme was largely unsuccessful. The society was warned that there was not the overseas demand for governesses that they supposed by both officials and through the letters of the ladies themselves. Some 300 ladies were assisted.

"Elizabeth Boake, who arrived on the Forest Rights on 13 January 1867, was another who decided to try teaching in the government schools, after several jobs as a governess. Her first position was as a daily governess 'with Mrs Greene, who was acquainted with Miss Rye', at a yearly salary of £70, which she obtained while living with her brother, Henry Boake, a teacher, at 9 Charlotte Street, Richmond. In a letter wrongly dated December 1866, she wrote: ' I have met with great kindness everywhere - all my friends here think I have done wisely in coming out to Australia, so I have every reason to be satisfied with what I have done'.
By 26 February 1868, when she wrote again giving the Richmond address, Elizabeth Boake was employed as a governess with the family of a government official (unnamed) at Warrnambool, in south-western Victoria. she asked to be forgiven for not sending money: 'Our present Government is to blame! On account of what is called the "Dead Lock", which no doubt you will have heard of, the Government officials are not receiving their salaries and, as I have been for some time engaged in instructing children of one of these gentlemen, have suffered from the general complaint.' The 'deadlock' referred to occurred between the two Houses of the Victorian Parliament, when the Legislative Council rejected an Appropriation Bill in November 1867. Parliament was prorogued pending an election in February 1868 and payments suspended. Elizabeth's letter apparently was written over a period of time, for later in it she wrote that she had received her pay and she enclosed £28 for the society. She said she had no cause to regret e,migrating to Victoria, but she added: 'The Colony is well stocked with Governesses, many not able to find suitable employment'.
As she did with other emigrants, when she thought she had an informative correspondent, Miss Lewin kept the correspondence going, asking for opinions of prospects and conditions. In her last letter to the Society, dated 1 January 1869 and again addressed from Richmond, Elizabeth Boake replied to these questions:
I have very little experience on the whole, so thought my best plan would be to wait and get the opinion of older colonists than myself as I did not feel at all competent to give one on the subject in which you are so kindly interested. I have spoken to many lately and the general opinion seems to be that there are Governesses enough in the Colony.  A highly accomplished lady with relatives out here would do well, no doubt, but such people do quite well at home. The average salary seems to be £70 - and my sister gets £80 in Ireland! I never did, but that was my own fault, for I disliked going amongst dignified aristocrats....
I would not advise anyone in whom I was interested to come out here as a Governess - I have been fortunate, but I have many friends and relations here, thank God; but unless a lady is very talented and independent she had best stay at home, be that home ever so humble. People pay their Governesses scarcely more than the Cooks here. I heard a lady say, " I would willingly give my Cook £40 if she would stay'. At the same time the same lady 'could not afford to pay her Governess more than £50' and the poor girl had to do all the needlework for five children, besides housekeeping, teaching and the children were far advanced and very clever. Servants are really badly wanting here.