Thomas Fincher

Thomas Fincher seems to have died in the 1830s. He married Jemima Saxby at St Andrews, Holborn, London in 1800 and they had about 8 children. His daughter Ruth emigrated to Tasmania in 1834.

Jemima Saxby

Jemima Saxby seems to have been born in Norfolk around 1781. She was baptised at Newton Flotman according to another descendant, her parents being Philip Saxby and Ann Mitchell. She married Thomas Fincher at St Andrews, Holborn, in London in February 1800. They had about 8 children, with my ancestor Ruth being born about midway in 1812.
Pigots Directory in 1839 lists her as a Shopkeeper at 2 Globe Terrace, Lower Road, Islington. She died in 1860, leaving a will.

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.