Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1843-1962 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
1.5 Type one boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Joseph Benson Mather (1814-1890) was the eldest son of Robert and Ann Mather who settled in Tasmania in 1822. He joined his father in his drapery and hosiery business in 1836 and later established his own business as a merchant tailor and importer in Liverpool Street, Hobart, taking his son, Joseph Francis, into partnership as J.B. Mather & Son in 1874. One of their contracts was to supply police uniforms. J.B. Mather also managed the East Coast Steam Navigation Co. in Hobart 1854-57. J.B.Mather was for many years Clerk to the Hobart Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. He spent most of the year 1840 in Sydney visiting and helping Sydney Friends on a visit of "concern" and on his return also travelled around
Tasmania visiting country Friends. In 1841 he obtained consent from Francis Cotton of Kelvedon, near Swansea, to "corresponding with his daughter with an
intention to an union in marriage" and the following year he married Anna Maria Cotton. They had six children: Joseph Francis (1844-1925), Anna Maria (1846-1900), Esther Ann (1849-1957) who married C.H. Robey, Maria Louisa (1851 -1857), Emma Elizabeth (1853-1939) and Frances Josephine (1855-1856) but Joseph's wife and the youngest little daughter died in 1856. Joseph Mather was lonely after her death, as he recorded in his diary, but he cared devotedly for his children, reading to them every night, except when they went to stay with their Cotton grandparents at Kelvedon for country air, and nursing them when they were ill. He nursed little Louisa day and night in 1857 until she died in his arms.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mather-joseph-francis-7514
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Deposited by Miss M Robey - 1971 & 1979. Further deposit received through Mrs R Mather, August 1979.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Miscellaneous papers and photographs relating mainly to the family of Joseph Benson Mather
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
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Conditions of access and use area
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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Dates of creation revision deletion
HE May 2018