AustLit

Charlotte Barton was considered a child prodigy who was engaged as a governess at the age of fifteen. When she was 29 she left England to take up the post of governess to the children of Hannibal and Anna Maria Macarthur. After only a year as governess with the Macarthur's she left to marry James Atkinson who she had met on the voyage to Sydney.

After the birth of their fourth child in 1834, her husband died leaving her to manage a large holding, run remote outstations, control convict labour and care for their children. In 1836 she married George Bruce Barton who proved to be violent and mentally disturbed. In 1839, Charlotte Barton fled from her husband, eventually moving to Sydney in 1840 where she sought legal protection from Barton. At the time of publication of A Mother's Offering to Her Children, she was receiving no money from her first husband's estate.