Contents

Jeannie Lockett

Jane Lockett (27 August 1847 – 14 November 1890), better known as Jeannie Lockett, was a colonial Australian writer and schoolteacher. Her articles on social and political issues were published in England in the 1880s. She also wrote short stories and non-fiction for the Australian press, sometimes as Jennie LockettorJeannie LeckettorBeattie. Her novel, Judith Grant, was published posthumously.

Life[edit]

Born Jane Beattie on 27 August 1847 in Bathurst, New South Wales,^[1] she was one of 15 children of writer Mary Anne (died 1906)^[2] and Hugh Beattie (died 1890).^[3] The family later settled at Wagga Wagga where Hugh established the Brooklyn vineyard.^[2][3] She married Thomas Lockett in Wagga on 27 May 1868.^[1] He was a blacksmith who had grown up on the goldfields at Lambing Flat (now Young).^[4]

After her marriage, Lockett worked as an assistant schoolteacher at Hamilton Public School in 1880.^[5] In 1884 at Camperdown Public School she received a promotion.^[6] In 1888 she had been transferred to Plunkett Street Public School as mistress overseeing the female students.^[7] She also tutored students sitting for matriculation examinations for university entrance.^[1]

Alongside her teaching, Lockett sent articles on the Australian social and political scene which were published in The Westminster Review, The Nineteenth Century (TNC) and St James's Gazette.^[1] In 1885 her article on "Female Labour in Australia" was published in TNC in the hope of attracting women migrate to Australia to work as domestic servants. It was republished in The Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, described as a "well-written paper"^[8] but a review in the Australian Town and Country Journal felt it would do little to lessen the servant shortage.^[9]

Lockett died aged 43 on 14 November 1890 at St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst^[10] and she was buried at Waverley Cemetery.^[11] Her niece, the poet, Mary Gilmore,^[1] wrote a detailed article about the Beattie family and its connection to Wagga Wagga.^[12]

Selected works[edit]

Non-fiction[edit]

• "Dietary for Families" (1883 series)^[13]

Short stories[edit]

• "Miss Nagg's Little Affaire de Coeur" (1883 two-part story)^[14]
• "Jo's Ideal" (1884 two-part story)^[15]
• "Brother Jack and the Other Jack' (1884)^[16]
• "A Stony Creek Idyll" (1885 two-part story)^[17][18]
• "The Millwood Mystery" (1886–87 serial)^[19][20]
• "Awfully Sudden Death" (1887 serial)^[21][22]
• "The Garston House Tragedy" (1888–89 serial)^[23][24]
• "The Case of Dr. Hilston" (1890 serial)^[25][26]

Novel[edit]

• Judith Grant: A Novel, Hutchinson (1892)

References[edit]