Ann Flinders (née Chappelle)

(harp music)

Birth of Ann Chappelle
21 November 1770

Anne's Parents
Father: John Chappelle - shipowner and master mariner 
'an intelligent and cultivated man ... died at sea at the age of forty'
Mother: Anne Chappelle - also from a seafaring family
'short, stout, efficient woman, with a reputation for being strict but kind'
Place of residence: Hull (England)
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Ann's Family life
With her mother Anne, and step-father Reverend William Tyler, at Partney:
'despite the differences in age the half-sisters, Ann and Isabella, growing
up in a close and supportive family, were devoted friends all their lives.'
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)  

Description of Ann (1794)
'Ann Chappelle was a small, slim young woman with dark curly hair, three and a half years
older than Matthew Flinders. Intelligent and artistic, she drew flowers and wrote poetry.
Educated as far as most young women could expect to be at the time, she combined a
considerable emotional fragility with something of her mother's practical strength.'
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Description of Ann by Sir Francis Galton
'Ann was two years her husband's senior and 150 centimetres or five feet tall,
with raven black hair and rich red-brown eyes ... she was of a "sweet, perfect temper.
Beloved by all who knew her. Witty. Generous. Nervous.'"
- from Introduction to Terra Australis (Flannery, T.)  

Description of Ann by Matthew (1801)
"witty, generous, raven-haired beauty with the rich red-brown eyes"
- from The Navigators (Toft, K.)

Ann marries Matthew
on 17 April 1801, at Partney's 600-year-old stone church, Lincolnshire
- Ann's stepfather  conducted the ceremony. 
The register was signed:
"Matthew Flinders, Commander in His Majesty's Royal Navy and Ann Chappelle,
of this parish, were Married in this Church by Licence this seventeenth Day of April
in the Year One Thousand eight Hundred and one By me Wm. Tyler, Rector of Bratoft."
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Isabella later wrote of the wedding 
"Never man more happy than poor Matthew & he determined to be so,
in spite of the Lords of the Admiralty & Sir Joseph Banks. - Yes, of all
the merry group none more merry than he ... I can see him now, distributing
his little gifts to the Bridesmaids, - mine was a little inkstand, ... pretending
to tell their fortunes by the lines in their palms, promising, of course,
to all good husbands & soon ... we were all fun and mirth."
  - from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Matthew forbidden to take Ann with him to Port Jackson (1801)
'One morning, the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl Saint Vincent, arrived on the
Investigator, unannounced. He found Flinders in his cabin, "with his wife on his knee!"
and worse, "without her bonnet".  The sight shocked his Lordship. Joseph Banks learned
that his protégé was living with his new wife on board the Investigator and worse, that
he planned to take her on the voyage with him. He wrote immediately to Flinders
"... their Lordships will, if they hear of her being in New
South Wales, immediately order you to be superseded ..."
- from The Navigators (Toft, K.)

[ Matthew argued that he intended to leave Ann at Port Jackson, while then completing the voyage.
He was also aware that other captains had sailed to the new colony with family on board. There was,
though, no precedent for a wife's presence on a voyage of discovery (as the traverse of the South
Coast would have been). This was to no avail. After only two months of marriage Ann and Matthew
were separated - the intention was for the voyage to last a maximum of of several years. However,
they were not to be reunited for almost a decade.] 

While Matthew was away (1801 onwards)
'Ann's circumstances left little opportunity to display an enhanced appearance or to
conduct herself other than as a respectable young wife left without her husband ... 
Letters from Ann reached Matthew before he sailed. They were sad, fretful, almost
petulant letters. She had been so distraught on Matthew's departure that she had
not written to him for three months ... She did not believe he loved her, as he
had chosen to go on his voyage instead of leaving the navy to be with her.'
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

By letter Matthew tried to reassure Ann (1802)
'...he very much loved and missed his wife. It was with overflowing feeling that
he wrote [from Sydney], "think on me, and how much I love thee; and believe
me,as indeed I am, thine with the utmost constancy and affection".' 
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

At Matthew's eventual return (1810)
'On 23 October 1810, Matthew Flinders set foot again on English soil after an
absence of nine years and three months. He set off for London that very evening
and was soon reunited with Ann ... On their first holiday together the couple
visited Hull, where they saw Watt's steam engine ...'
- from Introduction to Terra Australis (Flannery, T.)

The birth of a child (1812)
Anne Flinders, born to Ann and Matthew, 1 April

Growth of Anne (Ann and Matthew's child) (1813)
Described by Matthew
'"Our little Anne was taken home today, from nurse, where she had been fifteen months.
She runs stoutly, and though able to say very few words makes herself understood".
The little girl was a small, bright and lively child with curly black hair,
whose running about transformed the quiet household.'
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Ann nurses Matthew during his illness (1814)
'By this stage Ann was desperate with fear and worry. Matthew was fevered,
without appetite, increasingly weak, often sleepless and in agonising pain.
As well, two-year-old Anne was sick. She wrote, "so dreadfully was he
altered, he looked full 70 years of age, & was  worn to a skeliton."'
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Death of husband (1814)
Matthew died 19 July, at London
'Isabella...was wakened by Ann's sobbing. Isabella wrote:
"... all seemed still ... I entered the drawing room - his bedroom opened into it, the
door was open - I went in - there lay the corpse, the spirit flown, his countenance
placid and at rest - Dear Matthew! - I stood at the foot of the bed contemplating
the scene for a few moments, then rushed upstairs to my Sister - she was soon in 
the room of death & pressed his cold lips to hers - it was a heartbreaking effort"'
- from Introduction to Terra Australis (Flannery, T.)

Ann confirms Matthew's completed work (1814)
"He just lived to know, the work over which his life had been spent was laid before
the World, for he left this earthly scene of things, a few days after its publication."
 - from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Ann's life after Matthew (1815 onwards)
'Before the end of 1815 Ann, her mother, sister and little
daughter left London for Southampton, the first of many moves
to various towns in southern England over the next 37 years.'
- from The Life of Matthew Flinders (Estensen, M.)

Death of Ann (1852)
10 February, at Woolwich

go to
Main Page

C.Grant 2002, 2003