Career
She was a Quaker, and spent the years 1836-1838 in Australia, researching for a report on women"s prisons commissioned by Elizabeth Fry. Anley"s parents, place of birth on 17 February 1796 and education have not been traced. Her whereabouts through much of her life can only be surmised from indirect evidence.
The preface to the first edition of Influence is signed C. A., Forty Hill, Enfield, 9 February 1822.
That of Miriam is also signed C. A., but from Newport, Isle of Wight, February 1826, and dedicated to Mission Curry of Clanville, a hamlet in North Hampshire. A "Mission C. Anley, Isle of Wight" features in the list of subscribers to an 1826 novel entitled Edward, attributed to the socially advanced author "The Duchess of Duras" (Claire de Duras) and translated from French.
Lady Ellesmere lived at Hatchford Park, near Cobham, Surrey. Before her departure for Australia, Anley was reported in the local almanac to be taking the waters at Carlsbad.
While in Australia she is known to have spent 15 months as a governess to the prominent Dumaresq family.
A modern scholar remarks, "Charlotte Anley, an English Quaker disciple of Elizabeth Fry, behaved in a warm and accepting way towards the most violent convict women at the Paramatta Factory. Their response is a most moving affirmation of the power of love." A historian of religion notes that Anley "was surprised and thankful for having been "so well received and so patiently heard" at the factory in 1836. Charlotte Anley died on 6 April 1893 in Bath, Somerset.