Eliza VINCENT

Born in 1816, the fifth child of John VINCENT and Susannah RIVERS, she arrived in Hobart Town with her family from London in 1823. In 1832 she married Henry Mylam COCKERILL. He was granted a licence for the Castle Inn, built by her father, from October 1836 to 1846.
Life with Henry was not dull as some people in Bothwell objected to his convict origins. They moved to the New Norfolk area in 1851.
They had 15 children so it is perhaps not surprising that she died in 1864 at 47 of a liver complaint. They were living at the Cawthorn property, Arundel, at Macquarie Plains at the time.

Frances FORD

Born at Littlehampton in Sussex in 1754. Her parents were Richard FORD, a mariner possibly from Findon, and Mary.
She married Peter LEGGATT at Steyning, in Sussex in 1776. He had been previously married.
She later married John CAWTHORN around 1785 and they had three children, one daughter dying in infancy.
Her daughter Frances emigrated to Van Diemen's Land on Adamante in 1816 with her husband Richard BARKER and 3 sons as free settlers.
The following year, Frances arrived in Hobart Town on Cochin with Lieutenant-Governor SORELL and his children. They had travelled to Port Jackson on Sir William Bensley.
In 1818, her son John Henry CAWTHORN, and her nephew John FORD also arrived as free settlers.
She received a grant of 200 acres of land on the southern side of the Derwent, upstream from Bridgewater, on which Richard Barker built a two-story brick cottage. It later became an inn, then a haunted house and was demolished around 1940.
Frances died at Macquarie Plains in 1831 and was buried at New Norfolk.

Maria MILNE

Maria was the eldest daughter of David MILNE, an insurance underwriter with Lloyds of London, and his wife Sarah. She was born in London in 1792 and was baptised in the Scots Church.
She married John Henry CAWTHORN in 1814. Their first daughter was born around this time and died soon after.

John Henry CAWTHORN

The son of John CAWTHORN, a spectacle maker in London, and his wife Frances FORD, he was possibly born at Walthamstowe in Essex in 1786.
He married Maria MILNE in 1814.
They emigrated to Van Diemen's Land in 1818 on Lord Melville with their infant son, his cousin John FORD and her brother George MILNE.
He received a grant of 1000 acres at Macquarie Plains and became a farmer, naming his property Arundel, after his mother's family location.
They had seven children, but the eldest died in England and two sons also died in infancy.
John Henry CAWTHORN was a successful settler but he was accidentally killed in 1850 when his gun discharged as he was climbing through a hedge to kill some birds in his grain crop. He did not leave a Will.
He did however leave a heavily mortgaged property, as the 1840s had been poor years. It passed to his only surviving son, who died six months later, leaving it to his wife Ruth, as his sole beneficiary and executor.

Martha Ann COCKERILL

Born at Bothwell in Tasmania in 1841, Martha was the second daughter of Henry Mylam COCKERILL and Eliza VINCENT.

The family moved to New Norfolk in 1851 and were living at the Cawthorn property Arundel in 1864 when her mother died.

She married John Henry CAWTHORN in 1870. They had 10 children.
They moved from Macquarie Plains to Wattle Grove in 1879. Her older brother moved his family to Diamond Hill near Cygnet, perhaps also around that time.

High Arundel c. 1916

Martha died in 1925 and is buried at St Marks Anglican Church in Cygnet.

Henry David CAWTHORN

Henry David CAWTHORN was the eldest, and only surviving son, of John Henry CAWTHORN and Maria MILNE. He was born in London in 1816 and emigrated in 1818 with his parents, maternal uncle George MILNE and his father's cousin John FORD. They travelled on a convict ship, Lord Melville to Van Diemen's Land where his father obtained a large grant of land on the Derwent River at Macquarie Plains. Initially they probably lived at New Norfolk where they had taken over the ferry. They later moved up river to their property Arundel, adjacent to his cousins, the Barkers.
In 1839, David married Ruth FINCHER and they had six children, all born at Macquarie Plains and christened at St Marys Gretna.
In 1850, nine months after his father died, David died from cancer, leaving his wife to manage a heavily mortgaged property and a family of small children. At some point her mother-in-law moved next door to live with her daughter at the Barker property.

John Henry CAWTHORN

Born in 1840 at New Norfolk, he was the eldest of three sons of Henry David CAWTHORN and Ruth FINCHER. His father died in 1850, the same year as the accidental death of his grandfather, on whose original grant, Arundel, they lived.
John Henry married Martha Ann COCKERILL in 1870. They had 10 children, the first 6 being born at Arundel. They moved to High Arundel at Wattle Grove above the Huon River in 1879, where they grew small fruits and a general orchard.
Martha died in 1925 and John Henry in 1929 (in his 90th year).

High Arundel c1917

see Cyclopedia of Tasmania p418

Ruth FINCHER

Born in London about 1814, her parents were Thomas FINCHER and Jemima SAXBY. Her brothers and sister lived at Islington and it seems likely that she was living there when she was recruited for one of the first groups of free emigrant women to the Australian colonies in the 1830s.
Unfortunately, the Princess Royal women turned out to be a generally bad lot from the streets of London and the respectable few among them , including Ruth, must have had a trying time. The ship ran aground in Frederick Henry Bay when it arrived in 1832 and there was a scramble to secure the cargo of 200 women.
Ruth was employed as a governess by the Lewis family of Pittwater, according to family legend. She married Henry David CAWTHORN, the only surviving son of a free settler, at New Norfolk in 1839. They lived at the family property Arundel, at Macquarie Plains, on the Derwent.
They had six children, but her husband died shortly before the last child was born in 1850.
Ruth remarried William Henry PRICE in 1853. She died in 1876 and is buried at St Mary's at Gretna.

Jean McRAE

Born Hobart, Tasmania 1888. Second daughter of HectorMcRAE and Fanny HODGSON.
Lived at Forest Green, near Bothwell, Burnside near Orielton, and Kintail on Maria Island

Married Charles CAWTHORN in 1910 - six daughters.

Foundation President of Ardlethan Red Cross branch 1914
Died Hobart 1973

Charles Frederick Rivers CAWTHORN

Born Macquarie Plains, Tasmania 1875. Fourth son of John Henry CAWTHORN and Martha Ann COCKERILL. Farmer
Second Tasmanian Imperial Bushmen 1901-2
Married Jean McRAE in 1910 - six daughters.
Carter at Ardlethan NSW 1913-1921. Farming at Dover, Tasmania 1921-1937

Died Hobart 1966

Fanny Ann CAWTHORN

Fanny Ann Cawthorn was the second daughter born to Charles and Jean Cawthorn in Ardlethan, New South Wales, in April 1921. Later that year they returned to Tasmania and decided to farm at Dover, south of Hobart, where four more sisters were born. The girls attended the Dover school and Fan was fortunate to gain a scholarship to Hobart High School, boarding with a friend at her great-aunt’s home until the rest of the family moved up, three years later, in 1937.

She was a very good student with book prizes gracing our bookshelves. She continued to do very well in her career as a secretary at the Postmaster General’s Department [PMG/Post Office]. During the war, she enlisted in the WRAAF as a clerk in 1941. It was at this time that she became known as Fay.

After two years in the Education and Aptitude testing section in Hobart, she spent two years at the Department of Training in Statistics, vocational guidance and psychological testing in  Melbourne where she lived with her aunt’s family in Kew along with her sister Kath who was at the University of Melbourne. During this time, Fay matriculated part-time and commenced a part-time university course.

 

In March 1945, she married Les Patterson who she had met at dance class in Hobart before the war. His younger sister had been in the same year at Hobart High School. They became engaged when he returned from the Middle East in 1944 and were married in March 1945 while he was on leave from New Guinea.

After the war, Les returned to the Commonwealth Bank in Hobart, studying Commerce part-time at University and also playing first grade football, while Fay had three daughters; Janet, Sally and Diana, In 1950 they built their first home but by the end of 1953, with a baby son Michael as well, they had their first job transfer to Devonport in Northern Tasmania. With four children and away from family, Auntie Vera was a great support.

Eighteen months later they were back to Hobart, but in 1957, Les became a bank manager and they moved to Victoria for 3 years. Both Les and Fay became involved in the local community in Maryborough and it was there that they also took up golf.

In 1960 they returned to Hobart and their families, and Andrew arrived in mid 1961.

With the next move to Mildura in 1963, Fay continued her golf and found herself among the younger mothers as Andrew grew to school age. Over the six years in Mildura, Janet, Sally and Diana all left home for university in Melbourne and in 1969, her smaller family with two sons moved to Sydney, not far from her elder sister Margaret. Golf and embroidery continued in Fay’s life. Fay was a member of the Embroiderer’s Guild for many years, gaining a qualification in an English course along with only one other person. Her creations adorned her homes.

In 1972, they moved to Ipswich in Queensland for 3 years, leaving Mick behind at university, but moving closer to Janet and Sally. The next move was to Townsville where they lived for 3 years in a wonderful old bank house overlooking Magnetic Island. Here, Fay was a founding member of a very successful Fibre and Fabrics Group which invited eminent tutors in a range of innovative subjects, and ran a wonderful annual exhibition.

In 1979 they decided to retire and returned to their house in Sydney to prepare it for sale. They found their retirement place at Mullumbimby early in 1980, at the time their second grandchild was born in North Qld. Janet had moved to Grafton, and Mick had moved to Brisbane. Andrew was in Sydney, and Diana in Melbourne.

With all their experience of moving to new places, they threw themselves into life in Mullum, joining the golf club and helping with its extension to 18 holes. With her experience of native plant propagation in Townsville, she provided a lot of plants for the course as well as building her present garden from a grassy paddock. Golf and needlework continued, and she extended herself into bridge and Probus. She was an avid reader, borrowing regularly from the Mullum library and enjoying fossicking through second hand books at St Vinnies.

Apart from the tragic loss of Mick in 1983, Fay and Les enjoyed retirement together at Mullum from 1980 until Les became ill in 1996. They travelled to UK and Europe several times as well as trips to see the family in Tasmania. Over these years, they kept up with old friends from old places with regular Christmas correspondence.

Fay had nearly 16 years on her own after Les died in 1997. She outlived four of her sisters and kept in touch by phone with Nancy in New Zealand, and the family in Hobart. She also did trips to Alaska and the Kimberley with her bridge partner, Doreen. She continued playing golf, winning a medal as best super veteran in her early 80s and her last monthly medal when she was 85 or 86.

She was a lifetime learner and did things well. This may account for her long, healthy and fulfilling life. She was fortunate to be able to live out her life as she had hoped – in her own home and still active in her garden and the bridge club, of which she had been a founding member and a proud life member.

She was very well prepared for when her time came and we can be thankful for her peaceful ending, in the familiar surroundings of Mullum hospital, surrounded with people she knew.

Fay is survived by her children Janet, Sally, Diana and Andrew and grandchildren Jim, Lesley and Emily. We thank those close to her in Mullumbimby who have cared for her over the years, particularly her bridge and golf friends, neighbours, doctors and associated staff, and those who helped keep her home in such good order.

Leslie Alexander PATTERSON

Born Hobart 1918. Third son of William George PATTERSON and Helen CLARK.
Princes Street primary school and Hobart High School.
Enlisted 1939-1945 - Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea.

Married Fanny Ann CAWTHORN in 1945 - five children.
Commonwealth Bank until 1979 - Hobart, Devonport, Hobart, Maryborough Vic, Hobart, Mildura Vic, Sydney NSW, Ipswich Qld, Townsville Qld.
Retired to Mullumbimby New South Wales where he died in 1997.