sketcher, was the third daughter of Rev. George Keylock Rusden and Anne, née Townshend. Her youngest sister, Rose Elizabeth ( Selwyn ), also sketched. Her parents arrived at Sydney with ten of their children, including Amelia, in the James Harris on 1 May 1834 to join the eldest son, Francis Townshend Rusden, sometime assistant government surveyor of NSW, having come out, according to Governor Gipps, 'without permission of the Secretary of State’. Soon after disembarking, Amelia made a watercolour sketch, Roman Catholic Chapel, Sydney (NLA). Later that year, Amelia and her sister Sarah Anne accompanied their father to East Maitland where he had been appointed incumbent of St Peter’s Church of England. The two Rusden sisters seem briefly to have caught the eye of Thomas Mitchell 's brother Houston, then resident near Maitland, but in a letter dated 13 January 1835 Houston reported that he was considering marriage to 17-year-old Jessie Winder and remarked, 'As for the Misses Rusden I am done with them long ago’. Amelia married Ellis James Gilman of Singapore at Maitland on 21 May 1839. Since her husband had commercial interests in Canton, China from the 1840s to the 1860s, Amelia presumably accompanied him there.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
Note: Heritage biography.
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
