A few months ago we wrote about a donation to the Museum of six
letters from Frederick (Fred) and Roslyn Howard. The letters were written in
1856 and ’57 to Fred’s great Grandfather also named Frederick Howard, by two
young Pitcairner girls, Catherine ‘Kitty’ Christian and Louisa ‘Victoria’ Quintal. Fred and
Roslyn had emailed a copy of the letters and promised that when they visited Norfolk this month they
would bring the letters with them. Well this week the wonderful moment arrived
and they brought them in to the museum and formally made their donation.
These letters are very special. They provide us with a rare
opportunity to get to know the youthful Kitty and Victoria and through them the community as a
whole. We so often think about that arrival of our ancestors from Pitcairn,
imagining what it would have been like for them to land at their new home so
alien yet full of new promise. What did they think, how did they feel?
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| Frederick and Roslyn Howard |
Howard met Kitty and Victoria
in the days after they had arrived on the Morayshire. Howard was Second Master
on board HMS Herald, which was here
at Norfolk Island when the Pitcairners landed
on the 8th of June 1856. Captain Henry Mangles Denham from HMS Herald was of course one of the people
greeting the Islanders as they came ashore on Kingston Pier. The Herald had come to Norfolk Island during
its work undertaken between 1852 and 1861 carrying out an important series of
hydrographic surveys amongst the island groups of the South Pacific and in the
waters adjacent to Australia.
From the letters we get a sense of these girl’s humour,
innocence and naivety, together with their obvious enthusiasm for meeting the
new people they are coming into contact with as a result of the enormous change
that has just occurred in their young lives. Together with a separate letter to
this donation sent by Kitty’s mother Charlotte to Howard, they reveal how
easily trusting they were, sharing their feelings and personal circumstances so
openly.
Howard’s view of the Pitcairners is fairly well known as another
of his letters to Emily (now held by the Mitchell Library) describes them in
great detail – and refers specifically to Kitty and Victoria. It was Howard’s sister Emily who
received Kitty and Victoria’s
letters, sent to her by Howard as he sent all his letters to her for safe
keeping. From Emily they were passed down through the family to Fred’s father,
who had kept them in Howard’s old sea chest where they remained untouched for
many years until Fred and Roslyn discovered them. Roslyn has also compiled for
her family a fabulous history of Frederick’s
life detailing his years at sea.
It is such a generous act of Fred and Roslyn to separate
Kitty and Victoria’s letters from their
collection and return them to Norfolk
and we sincerely thank them for doing so.
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