She married Arthur Davitt, an educationalist, in Jersey in 1845. The couple arrived in Australia on 31 July 1854 with the aim of opening a new Model School.[1] However, internal disagreements and a financial recession resulted in the discharge of the Davitts in 1859. The husband contracted tuberculosis and died in 1860. Davitt continued to teach and also began writing after his death.[2] Davitt was a sister-in-law of English writer Anthony Trollope, but appears to have had little contact with him.[2]
Although some of her early work has been lost she is now credited with having written the first Australian murder mystery with her novel Force and Fraud: A Tale of the Bush in 1865.[2] Davitt began teaching again in 1874 but she died in extreme poverty in Fitzroy, in 1879.[2]
Legacy
Australia's crime writing award for women, the Davitt Award, is named in her honour.
