Author: Nealds, Adeline Martha
Biography:
NEALDS, Adeline Martha, formerly COLMAN (1795-1869: ancestry.co.uk)
She was baptised on 7 Aug. 1795 at Wicklewood, Norwich, the daughter of the Rev. John Colman (1745-1837) and his second wife Martha Catchpole (1761-1815). She married the Rev. Charles Nealds (1786-1829) on 5 Dec. 1816 at Wicklewood. He died, aged 43, at Ryde, Isle of Wight, and was buried at St. Thomas’s, 7 Oct. 1829. She was left with five children to bring up on a small church pension. She published Poems (1829) with seven members of the Colman family subscribing. She then published Summer Rambles and Winter Amusements . . . by a Clergyman's Widow (1840) but by Aug. 1842 applied to the RLF for help. A damning report from an investigator for the Mendacity Society had concluded that she lived in a furnished house in Swanscombe, Kent, costing more than her annual income, applied to every charity in sight, and owed money to everyone in the village, the people of which would “gladly” raise a subscription to get her out of the place. The family’s conduct was “loose & open to censure.” The RLF also rejected her. She eventually emigrated to Australia and sailed aboard the Asia with three daughters, arriving in New South Wales on 25 Mar. 1850. Her daughter Gertrude Augusta (1823-1915) had married John Dunn, a naval officer in the East India Company, in 1848 and he may have organised or advocated the emigration. Her son Henry Edward (1827-1910) also became a commercial captain. She died 22 Oct. 1869 at Careening Cove, North Shore (Sydney) and was buried at St. Leonard’s, leaving personal effects to the value of about £50 to her children. (ancestry.co.uk 15 Aug. 2020; findmypast.co.uk 15 Aug. 2020; Bury and Norwich Post 13 Nov. 1816, 22 Aug. 1837; Monthly Magazine Jun. 1815, 477 and Sept. 1815, 187; Cambridge Chronicle 23 Oct. 1829; GM (Supp.) 1829, 646; GM Oct. 1837, 433; RLF 1060; Argus [Melbourne] 26 Mar. 1850; Sydney Morning Herald 25 Oct. 1869; CCEd) AA
Other Names:
- Mrs. Charles Nealds