Caroline Ada Whiteman

Caroline Ada Whteman was just 13 years old when she was employed as a servant in the household of Albert Edward and Emily Anne Leggo in 1878.  As a servant she would have cooked, cleaned and done laundry for the family, and may have also assisted with the care of Albert and Emily’s two young children – Charles, and Ernest.  Ada, as she was known to all her family and friends, would have worked long hours with little time to herself, and for a small wage.

At 17 years of age Ada fell in love, and with the wisdom that only a teenager has, knew that her love would see her through a lifetime.  The man she had fallen so deeply in love with would provide for her, love her and father her children, and together they would be happier than any other couple she knew.  Ada also knew, with an absolute certainty that only teenagers share, that the love of her life Albert Edward Leggo, did not love his wife.  And so began the lies.

  

In the months, or even years that followed, there would have been stolen glances between Albert and Ada, filled with longing.  There were possibly times when their arms brushed together as they passed one another in the hall, and quick, quiet conversations held in an empty room behind closed doors. 

The first kiss that Ada and Albert shared was quite likely brief, leaving the taste for more lingering on their lips and igniting a passion in the very core of them. The forbidden always generates a need for more.

In December of 1883 Ada resigned her position with Albert Edward and Emily Ann, say that she wished to join her Aunt Harriet in Noumea.  Ada had been with the Leggo family for approximately 5 years and Emily Anne was again pregnant and due to deliver in the following February.  Did Ada try to leave Albert Edward at this point?  She certainly never made it to Noumea, and it would appear her resignation was part of Ada's plan to live with Albert Edward as his wife.

And what does a man do when the young love of his life walks out the front door and he is left in a supposedly loveless marriage, why – he goes fishing of course!  Albert Edward left the house to go fishing on New Year’s Day of 1884, and vanished.  He was feared drowned by Emily Anne and her three young sons.  Did Emily Anne mourn his loss?

Albert Edward’s fourth child, Florence, was born in February 1884, just weeks after her father’s disappearance.

I found numerous articles relating to Albert Edward's disappearance athttp://trove.nla.gov.au/

Albert Edward Leggo, who left his home at Woollahra, on New Years' Day, for a fishing excursion to Bondi, has not since been heard of.

Clarence & Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser Friday January 4th, 1884     

A gentleman, named Albert Edward Leggo, has been missing from his home, in Point Piper road, for some days past. He left home on a fishing excursion to Bondi Beach, on the afternoon of-New Year's Day, and nothing has since been heard of him. Mr. Leggo was 5' 9" high, and had a fair moustache and slight whiskers. He was dressed in a dark coat and waist coat, trousers of light check pattern, and a hard black felt hat.

Australian Town & Country Journal Saturday 12 January, 1884    Page 12

If only Albert Edward had gone fishing, or Ada had gone to Noumea, their dirty laundry would not have been aired in newspapers around the country.

Emily Ann Leggo petitioned for a decree nisi for dissolution of marriage with Albert Edward Leggo, on the ground of his alleged adultery with one Caroline Ada Whiteman. The petitioner said that she was married to the respondent in February, 1878. He was a carpenter by trade, and shortly after their marriage they went to live in Tamworth. There was a servant in their employment named Caroline Ada Whiteman, who was then 13 years of age. They left Tamworth in September 1879, and came to Sydney to live. The servant accompanied them and remained with them for some time. In December 1883, Whiteman left the witness's house, alleging she was going to Noumea, and on January 1, 1884, the respondent left his home, saying he was going fishing. He never returned, and she thought he had been drowned.

Some months afterward she received an anonymous letter from Melbourne, notifying that her husband was living there. She took out a warrant, and he was arrested and brought up in the Water Police Court, and charged with wife desertion. Miss Flegg said the respondent and the girl Whiteman came to live in her house, and continued to occupy the one room under the name of Mr. and Mrs. Rathwell, Senior-constable Lewis deposed that he arrested the respondent on a charge of wife desertion. He was in bed at the time with the girl Whiteman. The rule was granted, to be returnable in six months, with costs against the respondent, the petitioner to have the custody of the issue.

Evening News  Friday May 21 1886 Page 6

Emily Anne filed for divorce in 1885 with the divorce becoming final in 1886.  At around the same time that her divorce became final, her daughter Florence, aged 2 years, died.  It was the most difficult of times for Emily Anne.

Ada delivered her first child, Gertrude Grace Whiteman, to Albert Edward Leggo on 10 June 1886, whilst not married.  As soon as Albert Edwards’ divorce was legal in early 1887, Ada and Albert Edward were married in Sydney, although Ada was heavily pregnant with her second child at the time.  Albert Edward Leggo jnr was born in Sydney on 7 September, 1887.  Albert was soon followed by Elsie Maude Leggo b. 1888, Stella Constance Leggo b. 1890 and Hilda Beatrice Leggo b. 1893.  By all appearances the family was a happy one.  They immigrated to South Africa sometime between the years of 1894 and 1903 and Ada corresponded often with her mother, Mary Whiteman, and siblings via postcards and letters.

Caroline Ada Whiteman aged approximately
6 months (1866)  with her mohter
Mary Whiteman
her mother Mary