Caroline Harslett was the daughter of William Skinner and his wife Susanna (née Collings). She married Henry Harslett in 1844 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and they lived for a while in London. Their first child, a son, died there at the age of two.
All but one of Harslett's siblings emigrated to Australia. Henry and Caroline Harslett left on the Candahar in 1850 with their second son, then aged two. During the voyage Harslett gave birth to their third son. They were accompanied on the ship by Harslett's sister, Jane Skinner, whose letters describing the voyage are published in Gwenda Jeffrey's Hares on the Hill (1996). Also on the ship was author and poet Ellen Liston (q.v.). The Listons were valued friends of the Harsletts. Harslett's mother, brother and two more sisters came to South Australia on the next voyage of the Candahar in 1851, as did Sophy Cooke (née Taylor, q.v.). The Harsletts later had two more sons and two daughters, the eldest daughter being Caroline Emma (later Caroline Bateson, q.v.).
Henry Harslett made two excursions to the goldfields, then set up as a wood carter before taking up land and starting a cattle farm at Wellington on the River Murray. They then moved to Orroroo, where they grew vegetables, fruit and flowers at a property they called 'Tancred Springs'. At some stage they lived in Adelaide, when Henry Harslett worked at the Magill Reformatory, apparently as an Inspector. Their final years were spent in Adelaide.
Harslett was widowed in 1899.
