In the latter half of the 19th century a number of educated genteel women, sponsored by the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, left Britain to seek a better life in the colonies Unemployed and unmarried they had failed to find employment as governesses in the overcrowded Victorian job market They borrowed their fares from the Society and in letters back to the Society when repaying their loans, these women reported on life in the colonies during the years 1862-82