Author: GILLDEA, Caroline Charlotte Vesey
Biography:
GILLDEA, Caroline Charlotte Vesey formerly Dawson later Wetherell (1809-51: RLF)
She was born at Quebec on 27 May to Thomas Dawson (d 1837) of the 100th Regiment of Foot, then stationed in North America. Her mother’s name may have been Mariann. She had a brother, Irwin, also an officer in the 100th Regiment during the War of 1812; possibly he was a half-brother. Her father and brother served with distinction in Canada; Thomas Dawson was governor of Fort St. Joseph in Upper Canada. It is not known when the family returned to Ireland but likely it was about 1816-18 when the regiment was disbanded. In Dublin her father was a magistrate and an officer at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. On 3 Nov. 1827 she married John Gilldea; they had one surviving son, Irwin, who later joined the navy. John Gilldea died in 1835 but even before his death his estate was entangled in a protracted chancery case. In May 1839 she married Robert Hurd Wetherell of Birr, County Offaly (then called King's County); he contributed the “Life of Bunyan” to her Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress Converted into an Epic Poem (1844). In Mar. 1844 she applied to the RLF and was awarded £40. In Apr. 1845 when she made a second application to the RLF, she had separated from her husband and was living with her son in a Dublin lodging house. There she suffered a psychotic episode and was apprehended as “a dangerous lunatic.” In about 1847 she moved to London where, despite awards from the RLF and the Royal Bounty Fund, her situation became increasingly dire. In 1849 she was arrested on charges of swindling and forgery. Among other misdemeanours, she was accused of calling herself the Countess of Carlisle and ordering goods for which she could not pay; the magistrate, acknowledging her as delusional rather than criminal, committed her to the care of the parish. Estranged from her son, she moved to Leicester where, on 21 Nov. 1851, she swallowed prussic acid in her lodgings. Manuscripts, a diary, and a suicide note were found among her effects; some of these were read at her funeral and details printed in the newspapers. Other publications include her translation of Ségur’s Les Quatre Ages; and poems printed in the Dublin Family Magazine (1829). She sometimes used the name Mrs. Dawson Bruce Wetherell but at the time of her death she had reverted to using Gilldea. (RLF file 1097; Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail 25 Feb. 1832; The Pilot 29 May 1839; Freeman’s Journal 21 Dec. 1837, 23 Apr. 1845; The Pilot 29 May 1839; Morning Chronicle 19 Apr. 1849, 24 Apr. 1849; Leicester Chronicle 29 Nov. 1851; Morning Advertiser 1 Dec. 1851; Maire ní Fhlathúin, “Caroline Charlotte Vesey Gilldea,” Alexander Street Press [2008])
Other Names:
- C. C. V. G.
- Mrs. Dawson Bruce Wetherell
- Charlotte Caroline Vesey Gildea