Angelo, Charles Aubrey
Born in England in 1811, Charles Aubrey Angelo was a journalist, traveller, and two-time author of travel accounts.1 After living and working in California, Angelo travelled to Vancouver Island in 1859 during the Fraser River gold rush.2 He settled in Victoria, which he described, in his book Idaho(1865), as far worse than a Venetian oligarchy.3 Angelo became a clerk in the Victoria Customs Office, where he received duties for the province and recorded the transactions in the department books.4 In the summer of 1859, colonial officials discovered certain irregularities and apparent frauds in the Customs Office.5 They determined that $800 was missing from the account books.6 In a despatch to Sir Lytton, James Douglas recounts that suspicion [attaches] strongly to [Angelo].7 Swift proceedings were enacted by the Attorney General and Crown Solicitor against Angelo.8 He was tried and found guilty on 11 August 1859 for embezzling and falsifying the Customs Office accounts.9 Angelo was imprisoned for two months, despite several petitions of release from the public.10 In the Daily Evening Bulletin, Angelo is described as the life and soul of the Custom House Department… [returning] to the world as a wiser man.11 After his imprisonment, Angelo returned to California as a journalist for a local newspaper, and then joined the Idaho gold rush in 1863, the inspiration for his book, Idaho.12 On30 May 1875, Angelo passed away at the age of 64.13
  • 1. Tina Merril Loo Law and Authority in British Columbia, 1821-1871, Retrospective Theses and Dissertations, 1919-2007, (University of British Columbia: 1990) 65, 98.
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. C. Angelo Idaho, a Descriptive Tour, (Fairfield, Wash: Ye Galleon Press), 8-9.
  • 4. James Douglas to Edward George Earle Bulwer Lytton, 6 June 1859, CO 305:10, no. 7342, 196.
  • 5. Ibid.
  • 6. Ibid.
  • 7. Ibid.
  • 8. Second Day. Regina v. Angelo, The British Colonist, 15 August 1859, 1.
  • 9. James Douglas to Edward George Earle Bulwer Lytton, 6 June 1859, CO 305:10, no. 7342, 196.
  • 10. Tina Merill Loo Law and Authority in British Columbia, 1821-1871, Retrospective Theses and Dissertations, 1919-2007, (University of British Columbia: 1990) 65, 98.
  • 11. Letter from Victoria, V. I., Daily Evening Bulletin, 30 July 1860.
  • 12. Tina Merill LooLaw and Authority in British Columbia, 1821-1871, Retrospective Theses and Dissertations, 1919-2007, (University of British Columbia: 1990) 65, 98.
  • 13. Ibid.
Biographical information is not yet available for this person.
Mentions of this person in the documents