Item 19 - Letter Sarah Benson Mather to her aunt

Identity area

Reference code

AU TAS UTAS SPARC M10-19

Title

Letter Sarah Benson Mather to her aunt

Date(s)

  • 1831 (Creation)

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Item

Extent and medium

1 document

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Name of creator

(1782-1855)

Biographical history

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

Name of creator

(1812-1893)

Biographical history

Sarah Benson Walker (nee Mather) was the daughter of Methodists, Robert and Ann Mather, who joined the Quakers in 1934. That same year Sarah agreed to marry George Washinton Walker, despite once referring to him and James Backhouse as those 'pesky Quakers'. Sarah had ten children and served on Jane's Franklin's visiting committee to the Cascades Female Factory, and regularly participated in Monthly Meetings.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Deposited on indefinite loan with the University Archives by Miss Ursula Walker

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Letter from Sarah Benson Mather to her aunt describing her mother's death, dated 18 September 1831.

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Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

This material is made available for personal research and study purposes under the University of Tasmania Standard Copyright Licence. For any further use permission should be obtained from the copyright owners. For assistance please contact Special.Collections@utas.edu.au

When reusing this material, please cite the reference number and provide the following acknowledgement:
“Courtesy of the UTAS Library Special & Rare Collections”

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The Mather papers were deposited by three separate descendents of Robert and Ann Mather and are in three collections - Ml0, M19 & R7. See also the Walker Papers (W9), for papers of George Washington and Sarah Benson (Mather) Walker.

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Dates of creation revision deletion

HE May 2018

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