Miss Charlotte Tilney, daughter of William Tilney, arrived in Australia in 1849. She and her two sisters lived in one of the "Everett Cottages" on the north side of Grote Street. One sister, Anna Maria, managed the domestic arrangements, and Miss Charlotte and the other sister conducted the "Young Ladies' Seminary" in Grote St, Adelaide. While its exact dates are not known, "Miss Tilney's School" was certainly open by 1858, and it continued until about 1891. An early student, Sir Joseph Verco, recalled of his time there in 1858 that Miss Charlotte was rather delicate, and that she had a "Cabinet of Curiosities" in which she encouraged the pupils to put insects or other items of interest they found (South Australiana Sep 1963 p 64). There was only one schoolroom. Here the boys and girls sat for their lessons on forms each side of a long wooden table, and close by the window sat Charlotte's mother, doing netting with a shuttle and a mesh. One of the rewards for good behaviour in class was to be allowed to hold her cotton on outstretched hands while she wound it into a ball.
As well as running the school, Charlotte was a Sunday School teacher in a Congregational Church in Adelaide. In about 1891 she was "seized with paralysis" and was no longer able to continue with the school. She died three years later.
