Charlotte Waring Atkinson
Australian writer
Charlotte Atkinson (née Waring; 1796 – 10 October 1867) was the author of Australia's earliest known children's book. It was titled A Mother's Offering to her Children: By a Lady, Long Resident in New South Wales, and was published in 1841 in The Sydney Gazette.
Anonymously published, the book was originally attributed to Lady J.J. Gordon Bremer, the wife of Sir Gordon Bremer. However, extensive research by Marcie Muir supports its attribution to Charlotte Barton.
Early life
Charlotte Waring was born in 1796 and christened on 13 March 1796 at St Mary's, Marylebone, London. Her parents were Albert Waring and his wife Elizabeth Turner.
Life in Australia
In 1826 Charlotte Waring came to New South Wales to take up a position as governess to the family of Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur. She became engaged during the voyage to James Atkinson, a highly respected agriculturalist and author of the first substantial book on Australian farming. They married in 1827. The couple settled at Atkinson's property Oldbury in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.
The public source identifies “Charlotte Waring Atkinson” as australian writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Charlotte, Waring and Atkinson.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5085845. VIAF identifies the subject as 91848153. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1796, 1867, 1841 and 1826.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charlotte Waring Atkinson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.