This is my 3rd great grandmother Susan Augusta Chauncy (1828 – 1867), photographed in January 1866 in the Dunolly studio of a professional photographer named William Parker who, arriving in the colony in 1858, had set up in business there.
Susan Chauncy nee Mitchell was the daughter of the Reverend William Mitchell (1803 – 1870), a minister of the Church of England, and Ann Mitchell nee Holmes (1805 – 1831). Susan was born in Bombay, where her father served as a missionary. In about 1830 the family returned to England because of her mother’s poor health. Ann died in London in 1831 when Susan was two years old. William Mitchell remarried the following year and went back to India for three more years, returning to England again in 1835.
In 1838 William Mitchell was appointed by the Western Australian Missionary Society to minister to the residents of the Middle and Upper Swan regions of the new colony of Western Australia. On 4 August 1838, accompanied by his wife, four children, including Susan then aged 10, and a governess, Mitchell arrived in Fremantle, on the mouth of the Swan River, twenty miles or so from the Upper Swan.
The Mitchell family settled at Middle Swan in the Swan Valley. Within three years of his arrival, the Reverend Mitchell had opened three permanent church buildings in his parish; by contrast, the urban
centres, Perth and Fremantle, still had none. In 1842, he was re-classified by the Governor from Missionary to Chaplain, becoming the first Rector of the Swan Parish.
In 1848 Susan Mitchell married Philip Chauncy, a surveyor. The Chauncys moved from Western Australia to Victoria in 1853, where Philip Chauncy was appointed Surveyor-in-Charge of the McIvor district, present-day Heathcote. In 1860 Philip was transferred to the Dunolly Survey District, sixty miles west. The following year the family moved to Dunolly. Philip Chauncy was interested in photography. Some of his photographs have survived, including a picture of his house at Dunolly in 1865 with family members on the verandah.
In December 1866 the family moved to Melbourne for the sake of the children’s education.
On 30 September 1867 Susan Chauncy, only 39, died of bronchitis. She and Philip had nine children. One died in infancy.
A descendant of the photographer William Parker alerted me to this carte de visite. It is held by Art Gallery of New South Wales, which acquired it in 2014.
Further reading
- Chauncy, Philip Lamothe Snell Memoirs of Mrs Poole and Mrs Chauncy. Lowden, Kilmore, Vic, 1976.
- Art Gallery of New South Wales collection item 599.2014 Untitled 1866 Artist William Parker https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/599.2014/
- Entry for William Parker in Design & Art Australia online database https://www.daao.org.au/bio/william-parker/biography/
- Entry for Philip Chauncy in Design & Art Australia online database https://www.daao.org.au/bio/philip-lamothe-snell-chauncy/biography/
Related posts
- Mitchell family arrival on the Swan River 1838
- H is for heartbreak in Heathcote
- H is for Heathcote – renovated
- D is for drama in Dunolly
- Remembering Susan Augusta Chauncy née Mitchell (1828-1867)
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