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Caroline Elizabeth Jones was born 30 May 1808 She was born to Caroline Jones in Wootton, close to Northampton.[1] Her well-to-do father, William Jones, was a land owner and pig farmer.[3][4] She was the youngest of a large family and was educated by a governess, excelling in mathematics and French.[4] When still a child, her father took into his house a poor maimed soldier
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When she was twenty-two years old she married Archibald Chisholm, an officer in the British Army.
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In January 1841 she approached Governor and Lady Gipps and the proprietors of the Sydney Herald with a plan for a girls' home. In spite of discouragements and anti-Catholic feeling, she convinced Gipps that she was a disinterested philanthropist. She was granted use of part of the old immigration barracks for her Female Immigrants' Home.
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aptain Chisholm retired from the army and returned to Australia in 1845 to work with his wife.
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With her husband she left for England in 1846 in the Dublin. She was already a legend in New South Wales, although her last days were clouded by a revival of religious controversy.
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In 1852 she toured the British Isles and later Germany, France and Italy, where she visited the Pope
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in 1877 Caroline Chisholm died at home in England. By then she was very poor and almost forgotten.But Australian history recognises Caroline Chisholm as one of our greatest women.