Embroiderer and garden designer who was the widow of Sir James M. R. Richardson-Bunbury, Baronet, of Castle Hill, Augher, County Tyrone, Ireland. Lady Richardson-Bunbury had married at fifteen and produced ten children, a number had died of tuberculosis in Ireland. She arrived in Western Australia on 20 June 1855 aboard the Avalanche. Accompanying her were daughters Diana, Mary, Emily, a son Alfred, a prefabricated house, butler, housekeeper, silver and other easily portable accoutrements required for gracious living. They had come to Western Australia to join her son William who had arrived in 1842. Lady Richardson-Bunbury’s eldest son John, who had inherited Castle Hill, remained in Ireland. In 1857 William married Amelia Molloy daughter of noted botanical collector Georgiana Molloy and her husband Jack. His mother purchased Charterhouse at Picton, which had been Archdeacon Wollaston’s old property, and lovely gardens and orchards were planted. Descriptions are given in Marianne North’s Reflections of a Happy Life:
The Richardson-Bunbury’s were very hospitable people entertaining any of the gentry who were passing. They enjoyed speaking and reading French and singing French songs with their neighbours the Marshall Waller Cliftons. A description of tea at Lady Richardson-Bunbury’s home, with her butler, James Cahil, who doubled as gardener when not required indoors, gives an indication of the ceremony in their circle.
The pastimes of the family were typical of those of the leisured classes. This included embroidery, sketching, specimen collecting and visiting. Diana, and reputedly her mother, were noted for collecting and pressing seaweeds for Professor Harvey of Trinity College, Dublin while Diana and daughter-in-law Amelia collected wildflower specimens for Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller. None of her daughters married.
Lady Richardson-Bunbury made an exquisite lace handkerchief in fine linen embroidered with the “Irish-flowering” of Carrickmacross – an embroidery so intricate that it looks like a needle-made lace – Bruxelles Appliqu_. It is named for a market town in Monaghan, the county next to Tyrone where Lady Richardson-Bunbury had lived and where it was developed in 1820. Two chair panels embroidered in silk in tent stitch on a fine but heavy woollen bombazine made circa the1850s are also extant.
Lady Richardson-Bunbury, a devout Anglican, attended the Picton Church built by Archdeacon Wollaston and his sons. At Picton she formed the first Western Australian branch of the British & Foreign Bible Society and helped with other church activities. Lady Richardson-Bunbury died on 13 March 1873 and was buried with all the usual honours accorded to her rank, being buried facing the people at right angles to the graves of others.
