My second-great-grandparents, Caroline Tuckfield and Henry Greenwood married in Geelong, Victoria, in 1869. As any romantic knows, the story of how a couple met and fell in love is always a story worth telling. No oral tradition remains of how Caroline and Henry met, however there are clues to be found in their activities at the time.

Caroline was a daughter of Reverend Francis Tuckfield, a Wesleyan minister.² Reverend Tuckfield was originally a tin miner in Cornwall, and was converted to Christianity at a Wesleyan revival meeting.³ Caroline was born after her parents’ 1838 arrival in Port Phillip. The family moved around Victoria and Tasmania while father ministered firstly to the aboriginal people and later in various Wesleyan churches.⁴

My second-great-grandfather, Reverend Henry Greenwood, was also a Wesleyan minister. He immigrated to Victoria in the latter part of 1866; only two-and-a-half years later he and Caroline married in March 1869.⁵ Sometime during those years, their paths must have crossed often enough for them to meet, form an attachment, and marry.

It seems probable that it was their association with the Wesleyan denomination that led Henry and Caroline’s paths to cross. Caroline, being born and raised in Victoria, may well have been in awe of Henry, recently arrived from England and having been ordained as a reverend in his mid-twenties.

When Henry arrived in Victoria in 1866, Caroline’s father had recently passed away; so, clearly, Henry would not have met Caroline through a collegial association with her father.⁶ It is credible, though, to assume that Caroline maintained her own belief and association with the Wesleyan movement after her father’s passing. After her father died, Caroline moved to Geelong and ran a school for young ladies, together with her sister and stepmother.⁷ She was involved in the school, called ‘Portland House’, until the time of her marriage; the wedding ceremony taking place at the school.⁸

Meanwhile, on arriving in Victoria, Rev Henry was appointed first to the Wesleyan Church in Stieglitz (a small town about 40 km northwest of Geelong) and then to Avoca (over 150 km away).⁹ We know that Caroline was living and working in Geelong during this time, so it seems unlikely that Henry and Caroline met through his work with these congregations.

Two of Caroline’s sisters married Wesleyan ministers, although their marriages don’t adequately explain the connection between Henry and Caroline. Older sister Sarah was married to Reverend John Butterfield Smith; but she died in 1864, well before Henry arrived in Victoria.¹⁰ It is hard to imagine Caroline maintaining a close link with her widowed brother-in-law that would enable her to meet and fall in love with his colleague, and, in any case, there is no firm evidence of Henry and Reverend Smith being close colleagues.

Another of Caroline’s sisters, Emily, married Wesleyan minister Reverend George Schofield.¹¹ This marriage occurred in 1872, well after Caroline and Henry were married, so it is more likely that the married couple met because of a shared association with Caroline and Henry.

Caroline’s brother, James was also a Reverend. He was ministering in Berwick (over 100 km from Geelong) during the time Caroline and Henry must have met, so a meeting in his household or church, while not impossible, doesn’t seem probable.¹²

Caroline had other brothers who were also Wesleyan ministers, but they did not join the ministry until after Caroline and Henry were married, so any connection between Henry and Caroline’s brothers as colleagues was not yet formed at the time when they were courting.

It seems Henry was a respected orator, and according to newspaper reports, he gave several addresses to Wesleyan groups and congregations (apart from the one he was assigned to) that were held in high regard.¹³ Notably, he gave a number of addresses in Geelong, and given that this is where Caroline was living and worshipping, a reasonable conclusion is that they met while Henry was in Geelong on one of these occasions.

For instance, while ministering in Stieglitz in February 1868, Henry gave a public lecture on “Men with an object in life” to the Geelong Wesleyan Religious and Literary Institute.¹⁴ Rev James Bickford chaired the meeting, and the records show that he was also the minister that performed Henry and Caroline’s wedding in 1869.¹⁵ The presence of Reverend Bickford at their wedding suggests he was a mutual acquaintance of both Caroline and Henry. There is every chance Caroline attended the meeting chaired by her friend, and may have met Henry on that very evening.

There are no records that tell us for certain where and when Caroline and Henry met. That they met in Geelong during one of Henry’s visits seems most probable. I like to imagine Caroline listening to Henry preach and, being impressed by his ideals, wanting to meet this man who had ‘an object in life’.

Reference list
¹ ‘Family Notices’, Argus, 22 March 1869, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5812472.
² Heather Le Griffon, Campfires At The Cross: an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission at Birregura, near Colac, Victoria 1839-1851, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2006, p. 282.
³ Le Griffon, Campfires At The Cross: an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission at Birregura, near Colac, Victoria 1839-1851, p. 16.
⁴ Le Griffon, Campfires At The Cross: an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission at Birregura, near Colac, Victoria 1839-1851, pp. 280 – 282.
⁵ ‘Geelong Wesleyan Sabbath School Union’, Geelong Advertiser, 10 January 1867, p. 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148786358; ‘Advertising’, Inquirer and Commercial News, 20 June 1866, p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article69386330.
⁶ Le Griffon, Campfires At The Cross: an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission at Birregura, near Colac, Victoria 1839-1851, p. 282.
⁷ Le Griffon, Campfires At The Cross: an account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission at Birregura, near Colac, Victoria 1839-1851, p. 282.
⁸ ‘Family Notices’, Argus.
⁹ ‘News and notes’, Ballarat Star, 23 May 1867, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112875123; ‘Australasian Wesleyan Conference’, Argus, 7 February 1868, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5790154.
¹⁰ Death register entry of Sarah Gilbert Smith, died 1864, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, 2441 / 1864 (index only; no image currently available).
¹¹ ‘Family notices’, Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser, 20 May 1872, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65427359.
¹² ‘Australasian Wesleyan Conference’, Argus.
¹³ ‘Advertising’, Geelong Advertiser, 14 February 1868, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147777448; ‘Advertising’, Bacchus March Express, 7 March 1868, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88374279.
¹⁴ ‘Advertising’, Geelong Advertiser.
¹⁵ ‘Family Notices’, Argus.