LILY ROBITEEN
Updated: Sep 27, 2022
LILY ROBITEEN CHARMAN (1885-1962)
Lily Robiteen not only lived at Corio Bay Villa as a child, she gave birth to her own child there and then inherited the house after her father died. So I thought she deserved her very own post.
Lily's name is very unusual and somewhat contentious, as it's rarely spelt the same. Born as the second child to Charles Emberson (1856-1945) and Ann Daltera (1859-1909), her birth record states her first names as Lily Robertina. Upon marriage, her name is listed as Lillian Robiteen, and in documents relating to her mother's probate, she signs her name Lily Robiteen (as shown below), which is the name I use here. On her son's birth certificate she is Lily Robertine and upon her death, she is again listed as Lillian Robiteen.
Image: Lily Robiteen's signature, 1909
Lily's father, Charles, built Corio Bay Villa in 1890 and Lily and her family lived there from 1890 to 1894.[1] It would have made a big change moving from crowded Richmond, where both Lily and her brother William were born. Compared to the terrace houses in the inner suburb of Richmond the block of land on which Corio Bay Villa was built, plus absence of direct neighbours, may have felt like a foreign world. Lily would have been aged between four and ten years old when she lived at Corio Bay Villa. During that time it was the only house in the street, and the family would have had to walk at least 15 minutes to the nearest shops and train station.
During 1909, when Lily was 24 years old, two significant events occurred. Firstly, her mother, Annie, died. Secondly, Lily married Leopold Edgar Baker Charman (1879-1956), who went by Edgar. Edgar was born in Dandenong, Victoria, to David and Elizabeth Jane Charman. The Charman family were a prominent family in the newly developed area of Monbulk. Edgar worked as a 'carrier', meaning that he delivered goods via horse and carriage. He married Lily when he was 30 years old and together they moved to the town of Emerald, up in the Yarra Ranges.
A few years later, Lily gave birth to their first and only child, Leo Robert (1913-1980) whose name is a derivative of both parents names. Leo Robert was born in Surrey Hills and, as her father Charles was living at Corio Bay Villa in Surrey Hills at the time, he was a witnesses to his birth.[2] Interestingly around this same time, Edgar's name does not appear on the local voting registers in either Emerald or Surrey Hills. Perhaps Lily's husband was temporarily away for work, or was required elsewhere due to circumstances surrounding the First World War. By 1918, records show that Edgar was back and living with Lily and Leo in Emerald, Victoria.
In 1917 Lily's brother William Charles Emberson (1882-1917) died in France during the First World War. Perhaps for this reason, her father Charles decided to leave Surrey Hills and move to back Kallista, just ten kilometres down the road from Lily and her family in Emerald. By 1934, however, Lily and her husband Edgar had gone their separate ways. Lily and her son Leo, now a 21 year old labourer, were living on Main Rd, Kallista, most likely with Charles.
After the loss of Lily's mother and brother, I imagine that Lily wanted to stay close to her father. After all, Lily had lived within 10 kilometres of Charles for most of her life. In her time of need, at the time of her son's birth, when most women would go to another woman for assistance, she went to her father at Corio Bay Villa. So when Charles Emberson passed away in 1946, aged 88 years, it must have been a sad time for Lily. In Charles' death notice, Lily described him as a 'loved father'.[3] Lily had now outlived her mother, brother and father, and the ownership of Corio Bay Villa passed undisputedly to her, whereupon she sold it to the Farneys in the very same year of her father's death.[4]
Lily lived out the remainder of her years in Kallista, eventually dying in Box Hill, not far from Corio Bay Villa, aged 75 years old. She was survived by her son Leo, who married but did not have any children of his own.
Image Left: Lily many names, as per the Law Notices in the Age, 15 June 1962, page 17.
Image Right: Lily Robiteen Charman's grave stone, Springvale Botanical Cemetery.
Source: https://www.findagrave.com/, viewed 24 April 2022.
REFERENCES:
[1] Corio Bay Villa
Source: O.S Green and Julia Morant, 1978, Box Hill Sketchbook, pp. 42-43.
[2] Leo Robert Charman's birth recorded dated 12 April 1913, sourced from the Victorian Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
[3] Charles Emberson's death notice in the Age on Tuesday 31 July, 1945.
[4] Corio Bay Villa land titles 1889 - 1964.
Source: Landata, https://www.landata.vic.gov.au/
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