The strange tale of Sydney recluse Eliza Emily Donnithorne has haunted the world for over 150 years, just a little longer than the strange tale of Miss Havisham, whose tragic figure paints a distressing picture of unmarried women’s prospects in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. But are these two characters – the very real Eliza and the fictional Miss Havisham, both jilted at the altar in the unforgiving 1800s – linked? Increasingly researchers in Australia, at least, suspect they might be.
Born in South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1821, Eliza was the youngest child of James Donnithorne, a judge and merchant in the famous East India Company, and grew up in Calcutta. Tragedy struck in 1832, when Eliza’s mother and two teenage sisters died during the city’s cholera epidemic. At age 63, Judge Donnithorne retired to Australia, arriving in Sydney on September 10, 1838. After finishing school in England, Eliza
