Miss Helen Robertson - Secretary of the St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society

In a previous post I wrote about Miss Robertson, one of two women who signed the petition in 1856 to alter the boundaries of the St Kilda Municipality. I identified her as Ellen Robertson from Fitzroy Street and have written about her here. 

There is another Miss Robertson who appears in the history of St Kilda, Helen Robertson (1)  who was from 1864 until her death in 1881, the Secretary of the St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society. (2)  I wondered at first whether she was Miss Robertson, the petition signer, but I believe I have it right with Ellen, as the earliest I can place Helen in St Kilda is 1862.

Miss Robertson, of the St. Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society

The Argus, March 7, 1874 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5865409 

The St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society was established 1859, and we will let J.B. Cooper, the St Kilda Historian, explain the origins and purpose of the  Society -

The ladies of St. Kilda were energetic workers in causes that appealed to their sympathies, and among such causes, was the plight of poor people, who struggled for a livelihood, on the margin line, that divides penurious existence from actual want. Any temporary cessation from daily employment, any visitation of sickness upon the breadwinner, and such families became distressed ones needing help in money or kind. Then too there were the families who suffered from the improvidence of the breadwinner brought about maybe by intemperance. Be the cause what it may have been, the ladies of St. Kilda were of that charitable nature, that they could not allow the children, and wives, to suffer, without making an attempt to succour them. It was adjudged that the best method wherewith to deal with such cases was to establish a Ladies' Benevolent Society, and a meeting of ladies was held at the residence of Mrs. Purchase on October 11th, 1859, for that purpose. Two resolutions were adopted:- 1. That such a Society was necessary for the purpose of visiting and relieving the poor and 2. that the Society be designated "The St. Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society." Mrs. A'Beckett was elected to fill the office of President, Mrs. Cooke that of Treasurer, and Mrs. Shaw that of Hony. Secretary. A code of rules was drawn up for the guidance of the Committee. A second meeting was held on the 25th, at which Mrs. Alicia Jennings acted as President in the absence of Mrs. A'Beckett."

The Society's first report gives a glimpse into the necessities of the poor in early St. Kilda. Indigent persons to the number of 58 were relieved, and assisted, during the first year of the Society's existence. Some deserted wives were given the means to earn money by presents of mangles. The receipts for the year from charitable people (including £50 from the Council) were £230, and the expenditure in relief £365/12/1. The committee of the St. Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society was in the the habit of distributing bread, groceries, clothing, and firewood. Many poor people also had assistance given to them to enable them to pay their rent. In 1863, the society advanced money to two poor women for the purpose of buying sewing machines. Several individuals, sick and poor, had been sent to the hospital, and some old people to the Benevolent Asylum, wholly through the efforts made, and the influence used by the ladies of the society. Numbers of children in St. Kilda, whose parents were too poor to pay for their education, were sent to school at the Society's expense. The committee of the society established friendly relations with the authorities of the Melbourne City Mission. At the society's request, a missioner visited St. Kilda, once every week to visit the poor. For this service the committee paid to the mission the sum of £10 per year. 

The society afforded help to all indigent persons, without distinction of creed. The only limit to its bounty was the extent of its resources. In the report issued, by the Society in November, 1863, acknowledgement was made of the generous way, in which the residents of St. Kilda, had supported the Society. The cash account showed that the Society had commenced its year with a balance of £35/3/74, and that the subscriptions had totalled £73/7/- and the donations and payments £172/3/- making a total of £280/13/7½. The expenditure for the year had been £257/17/6, leaving a balance in hand of £22/16/1½. The cash receipts were swollen by the receipt of £50 from the Municipal Council of St. Kilda, a body of men who had the highest opinion of the St. Kilda Ladies Benevolent Society, an opinion that still lives in the corporate mind of the St Kilda Council towards the present members of this very useful society. The £50 was handed to the secretary of the Society, to enable the ladies to arrange that the children of the poorer classes should participate in the rejoicings at St. Kilda in celebration of the marriage of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. (3)

St Kilda Day Nursery established

St Kilda Telegraph, April 3, 1875 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109630297

One of the achievements of the St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society was the establishment of a Creche on April 8, 1875, and again we will turn to J.B. Cooper  -
Creches did not exist in the same way today [1931] as they did fifty three years ago, though the want of a place where infants could be left by working mothers was, in degree, just as pressing as it is today. The St. Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society recognised the want, and the ladies of that society, made provision to meet it. On April 8, 1875, they opened, what they called, "The St. Kilda Day Nursery" in Somerset Street. The nursery, it was stated, was for "the benefit of the working women to enable them to leave their children, from the age of one month to six years, during their necessary absence from home." Advertisements were inserted in the newspapers, informing the mothers, that full particulars could be obtained from the nurse on the premises, from the honorary secretary of the Society, Miss Robertson, Acland Street. (4)

St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society ceased functioning in 1963. (5)  There were many women, apart from Helen Robertson, with a long-term involvement with the Society, but they are a story for another day. 

It was from  the paragraph, above, about the Creche, that I discovered Miss Robertson, and then wondered if she was the petition signer. Helen, born in 1834, was the daughter of Dr Archibald Robinson and his wife Agnes Hamilton, she was the fifth of their six children, all born in Scotland. 

• Isabella Gellie born 1824; died on May 9, 1856 aged 32.  
• Archibald Moodie born 1825; died December 1, 1862, aged 37. 
• Janet (known as Jessie) born 1828. Married John Russell Keays on October 8, 1855. Died February 8, 1857, aged 29, on the day she gave birth to a daughter, Jessie, who died 11 days later. 
• Louisa Mary born 1830. Married John McLachlan on January 8, 1851 in Adelaide. Died September 16, 1856 at Spring Bank, Avoca River, aged 26. 
• Helen born 1834. Died November 20, 1881, aged 47. 
• Agnes born 1839. Married George Thomson on September 6, 1866. Died on October 26, 1900, aged 60. (6)

The family arrived in Melbourne in January 15, 1849 on the Duchess of Northumberland, Dr Robinson had acted as the Surgeon Superintendent on the voyage. They, at some time, moved to Heidelberg where Dr Robinson died on July 27, 1854. He was the first of the family buried at the Warringal Cemetery in Heidelberg, in three adjoining plots. Sadly, he was soon followed by three of his daughters, who died between May 1856 and February 1857 and in time by his wife and his other three children. (7)

The first connection I can find between the family and St Kilda was with Helen's brother, Archibald Moody Robertson, who in 1858 and 1859 was listed in the St Kilda Rate books, renting an 8-roomed wood and slate house in Acland Street from a Mr Lomas. Two questions of which I have no answers - were Agnes and her two unmarried daughters, Helen and Agnes, also living with their son and brother; and where was Archibald living in 1860, 1861 and 1862 before he died on December 1, 1862? (8) 

Miss Robertson presented with a purse of sovereigns. I wonder what she bought with them?

The Argus, August 31, 1875 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5900704

In 1862, Helen's mother Agnes began renting a 13-roomed iron house in Alma Road, next to a now demolished Congregational Church, which was on the corner of Alma and Barkly Streets (opposite the grand Presbyterian Church on the St Kilda hill).  The owner of the house was Mrs Fletcher, the widow of the Reverend Richard Fletcher, a Congregational minister, whose original church was also made of  iron and which could seat 250 worshippers. Mrs Fletcher was an original committee member of the Benevolent Society. (9)  Two years after that, in 1864, Helen took over as Secretary of the St. Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society from the original secretary Mrs Henry Steel Shaw. (10)  In 1866, young Agnes married George Thomson, at the house. The marriage was conducted by the Presbyterian Minister, Reverend Irving Hetherington and Helen was one of the witnesses. (11)

Agnes Robertson's property in Alma Street (now called Alma Road)

Sands & McDougall's Melbourne and suburban directory 1865, digitised at the State Library of Victoria

In 1873, Agnes and Helen moved to an 8-roomed brick house in Acland Street, rented from Robert Stroud. It was located on the corner of Jackson Street. They were still living there when Helen died of enteric fever on November 20, 1881, at only 47 years of age. (12)

Helen Robertson listed in the 1880 Sands and McDougall Directory. This was how I finally discovered her given name, all the newspaper reports of her activities as Secretary list her as Miss Robertson.

Sands & McDougall's Melbourne and suburban directory 1880, digitised at the State Library of Victoria

Helen's death notice

St Kilda Telegraph, November 26, 1881 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107118170

After Helen's death, Agnes moved in with her youngest daughter, also called Agnes, who lived in Fawkner Street, St Kilda, and she was living there when she died on March 4, 1887 aged 89, having out-lived five of her six children. Agnes is also buried at the Warringal Cemetery. (13)

Helen Robertson and her colleagues at the St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society provided a valuable service to the people of St Kilda in the days before aged pensions, widow's pensions and single mothers benefits, by looking after the elderly, the poor, the sick and their children. 

Trove list - I have created  a list of newspaper articles related to Helen Robertson, her work with the St Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society and her family, access it here.

Footnotes
(1) In all the newspaper mentions of Miss Robertson, her first name was never noted, I only discovered her name as she is listed in the 1880 Sands and McDougall Melbourne and Suburban Directory. Once I had her name I could start building the family tree.
(2) Helen became the Secretary in October 1864 -  The Age, October 14, 1864, see here.
(3) Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a City and after, 1840 - 1930, v. 1 (City of St Kilda, 1931), pp. 361-362. You can read this book on-line on the St Kilda Historical Society website - https://www.stkildahistory.org.au/publications/ebooks
(4) Cooper, op. cit., p. 363.
(5) Longmire, Helen St Kilda the show goes on: the history of St Kilda v.3 1930 to July 1983 (Hudson/City of St Kilda, 1989), p. 207. You can read this book on-line on the St Kilda Historical Society website - https://www.stkildahistory.org.au/publications/ebooks
(6) Dates of birth were estimated from age at death. Death dates and age at death taken from the headstones at Warringal Cemetery - photos taken by John William Constantine on Find a Grave;  death certificates of Archibald Robertson, Helen Robertson and Agnes Robertson (nee Hamilton) and death notice of Jessie and the birth notice of her daughter -  The Argus, February 9, 1857, see here.  I cannot find  a death notice for Archibald Moodie Robertson or any reference to his death in the Victorian Deaths Index. Marriage date of Jessie - The Argus, August 10, 1855, see here; Louisa - Melbourne Daily News, January 20, 1851, see here ; Agnes -  marriage certificate. 
(7) Arrival date - Shipping records at the Public Records Office of Victoria - Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom VPRS 14; death certificate of Archibald Robertson.
(8) St Kilda Rate books are  on-line at the Public Records Office of Victoria - VPRS 8816 -  from 1857 and on Ancestry.com from 1859. 
(9) St Kilda Rate books, see footnote 8; The Fletchers are listed as living in the house in 1861, the Reverend Fletcher died on December 15, 1861 - death notice - The Age, December 16, 1861, see here;  J. B Cooper writes about the iron houses and buildings, including the Church, in his St Kilda history (see footnote 3) on page 243. Mrs Fletcher is listed in the First Annual Report of the St  Kilda Ladies' Benevolent Society, digitised at the State Library of Victoria, here. 

(10) Helen became the Secretary in October 1864 -  The Age, October 14, 1864, see here, due to Mrs Shaw leaving the district.
(11) Agnes Robertson/George Thomason marriage certificate.
(12) St Kilda Rate books, see footnote 8; 1880 Sands and McDougall Melbourne and Suburban Directory; Helen's death certificate.

(13) Agnes Robertson's death certificate.