Collection RS68 - Historical notes

Charles Meredith was born on 29 May 1811 in Pembrokeshire, son of George Meredith. Charles sailed with his father and other children for Van Diemen's Land and arrived in March 1821. Denied a land grant by Lieutenant-Governor Arthur, Charles moved to New South Wales in 1834 and bought sheep which he placed upon terms with pastoralists in the Murrumbidgee area. He also took up shares with W. A. Brodribb in a cattle run in the Maneroo district and in 1838 went to England. On 18 April 1839 he married Louisa Ann Twamley (1812-1895) at Old Edgbaston Church, Birmingham. They sailed for Sydney in the Letitia and arrived in September. While Charles inspected sheep stations on the Murrumbidgee Louisa stayed at Bathurst. After a few weeks in Sydney they moved to Homebush. In 1840 Charles, Louisa and a young son went to Oyster Bay, Tasmania, where his father owned Cambria. They bought an adjoining estate, Springvale, and in August 1842 moved to their newly-built house. He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1860. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/meredith-charles-4187

Robert Mather (1782-1855) was a draper of London, son of Mather of Lauder near Berwick-on-Tweed, UK . In 1821 Robert Mather joined a group of members of the Wesleyan Methodist Society who proposed to charter a ship to proceed to VDL., and many of the papers are business papers relating to this proposal and the subsequent delays when the ship 'Hope' was seized by H M Customs as being unseaworthy and held in Ramsgate until the party was eventually transferred to the 'Heroine' in 1822 (Ml0/1-15, R&/21-32). Robert and Ann Mather and four children arrived in Tasmania in September 1822. Robert Mather rented a house for one hundred pounds a year and set up in business, for the first few months in partnership with a fellow passenger, Henry Hopkins. Later, in 1823, he moved to 'London House' which he had built at the corner of Elizabeth and Liverpool Streets where he established a general store and drapery business: In 1824 he acquired land at Muddy Plains, called Lauderdale, where he farmed. After his wife's death in 1831 he closed the Hobart business and moved to the farm, until in 1836 financial problems made it necessary to establish a business again in partnership with his sons.
Their children were: Sarah Benson (born 1812, married 1840 George Washington Walker, Quaker missionary); Joseph Benson (born 1814, married 1842 Anna Maria Cotton, children: Joseph Francis (1844-1925), Anna Maria (1846 -), Esther Ann (1849 - r married CH Robey); Maria Louisa (1851~1857); Emma Elizabeth (1853 - married William Benson); Frances Josephine (1855­ -1856); Robert Andrew (1815-1884, married Ann Pollard, children: Samuel Robert (1843-); Ann Benson (1845-); Sarah Benson (1846-75); Robert (1847-1912); Theophilus Henry; Thomas Bourne (1851-1926); Joseph Benson (1852); Jane Dixon (1854-); George Lidbetter (1859-64), and two others who died in infancy.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mather-robert-2438