Charlotte Cleveland

sketcher, was born in London on 20 July 1819 into a family of eminent architects; she was the niece of Sir Charles Barry, designer of the British Houses of Parliament, and a cousin of Sir John Wolfe Barry, designer of Tower Bridge and Kew Bridge. In 1844 she married William Charles Cleveland, a trader between Sydney and Launceston who had settled in Van Diemen's Land in the 1830s. They lived in England and Europe for eight years and had four children. During this time she is known to have sketched; a drawing of Venice is extant (p.c.).

The Clevelands left for Tasmania in 1852, arriving at Launceston aboard the Mermaid on 4 August. They lived at Normanstone from about 1858, when a new brick house was completed. Four more children were born before 1864, the year the family moved to Melbourne. In 1871 Charlotte embarked for England on the Queen of the Thames and was shipwrecked near Durban. She nevertheless reached England in May, then returned to Melbourne in 1872. In 1877 her husband's ill-health necessitated a move back to Launceston where they lived at The Hollies in the High Street. After William's death Charlotte moved up to Windmill Hill; she died there in 1884. William Cleveland's diary is in the Mitchell Library, Charlotte Cleveland's remains with a descendant.

Charlotte drew, in pencil or pencil and wash, views of buildings and landscapes. These include Windermere Church on the Tamar, Tasmania (1854), Hobart Town (1854), The Signalling Station & Cottage, Windmill Hill. View of the Cottage at the Flag Staff Station Launceston, Tasmania (1854) and Creek of the North Esk. The Bathing Place of the Boys of Christ's College Bishopsbourne with a Distant View of Part of the Western Tier, Tasmania (1856). Two sketches in a family collection--pencil views of Launceston (n.d.) and White Hills (1854)--are signed 'Chas [Charles] Eddy', but the family believes these were in fact by Charlotte. A male pseudonym is compatible with the architectural precision and focus of much of her work and there is a suggestion that she perhaps would have liked to have been an architect like the male members of her family.

Staff Writer.