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New
South Wales
A
New Beginning
It
took time for Thomas Hodgetts and Harriet to recover and regain
their strength from their arduous and horrific journey to their
new home. At the
time they
arrived, the colony they were to live in had been previously
set up as a penal colony after the arrival of the First Fleet.
Governor
Phillip was in charge and there were temporary houses
to house the prisoners. Conditions were very basic and tough.
Food was
still rationed and the basic necessities required for living
were scarce but life was far more comfortable compared
to the journey on the Scarborough.
Thomas
and Harriet soon began to make some sort of a life for themselves
as time went on. Thomas, a blacksmith by trade, worked as such
in the colony.
It
was on the 25th October 1791 that joy entered their lives for
the first time when their first child was born, a boy named John.
Two years later a daughter, Mary was born, on 15th September
1792. A second daughter arrived on the 21st April 1795. Three
days later, Mary the first born daughter, died and the new child
was named Mary Maria after the first born daughter.
Five
years had passed since Thomas and Harriet's arrival
in Sydney Cove and as Thomas's 7 year sentence had passed in
1795, he was
free to work and acquire land. Thomas worked during this time
in his trade as a blacksmith.
Thomas
felt though that conditions were proving hard to support
his growing family and was looking for a better life other than
in
Sydney. Another child, a girl, named Sarah was born on the 1st
September 1797 and it was at this time that Thomas decided to
move his family away form Sydney and sail to the penal colony
of Norfolk Island which had been set up earlier soon after the
arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 for the housing of the prisoners
on those ships.
It
is thought that Thomas and his family arrived on Norfolk Island
on the 26th July 1800.
Next...........
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