Reference to the index of papers of Robert and Ann Mather (Benson), 1821 -1835.

Abstract

Robert and Ann Mather and four children arrived in Tasmania in 1822. Ann Mather (1786-1831) was the daughter of Rev. Joseph Benson (1749-1821), a prominent Methodist minister and friend of John Wesley. She married Robert Mather (1782-1855), a draper of London, son of Mather of Lauder near Berwick-on-Tweed, UK in 1811.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. Ann Mather's letters to her brother, Rev Samuel Benson (Curate of St. Saviour's, Southwark) and sisters, Isabella Whytall and Sarah Benson (later Mrs Hammond) give some idea of the family's early life in Tasmania.