Bloomsbury to Barkerville (The Life of Florence Wilson)

In 1862, thirty-nine-year-old Florence Wilson embarked on the SS Tynemouth, a so-called brideship destined for the Colony of British Columbia. She was one among sixty women, most much younger than Wilson, who were travelling halfway around the world to become the wives of gold miners seeking their fortunes in the Cariboo gold rush. But unbeknownst to her fellow passengers, Florence had no intention of marrying; she was there to pursue her own fortune.

By the time she set sail on the Tynemouth, Florence had already experienced more of life than most women and men twice her age. She had grown up as part of the gentry in central London’s Bloomsbury district, had become a published poet as a young woman, and moved in the same literary circles as Charles Dickens. After being cheated of her inheritance, she fell into debilitating poverty. She eventually found work as a governess in imperial Russia, only to be shipwrecked and robbed of her meagre savings, leaving her with few options, until news of a gold rush in Western Canada and a ship full of single women gave her an idea—and an opportunity to change her life.

Bloomsbury to Barkerville is the incredible true tale of an intrepid, ambitious woman. From poet to prospector to entrepreneur, Florence is best remembered in the frontier mining town of Barkerville, BC, as a saloon owner and founder of the Theatre Royale. She was the heart of the community, bringing entertainment and culture to a town almost entirely inhabited by transient male miners. In Barkerville, her fortunes rose, fell, and literally went up in flames in the great fire of 1868. But she always rebuilt and regrouped. Eventually Florence—with new husband and child in tow—departed the Cariboo for California, ultimately returning to literary life in San Francisco before her death in 1902. This sweeping yet intimate portrait of her life reveals a heroine whose name should be better known.