| The Lovers | |
|---|---|
| Peter Withers
(1807-d.?) a shoemaker by trade, was born in Wiltshire, southern England. In 1830, at age 23, he was involved in a local "Capitan Swing" riot, a protest by farmworkers against poor living conditions, low wages, and the introduction of threshing machines that would put many of them out of work. On January 8, 1831, Withers was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to transportation. Two years later he wrote to his brother from Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania), telling him that he had sent two letters to his wife entreating her to join him. Eleven years passed before Withers received word from her, and by then it was too late; he had taken a new wife and made a new life for himself. |
Mary Ann Hobbs
(dates unknown) married Peter Withers in the parish church of Ramsbury, Wiltshire, on October 28, 1828. She had two children by him, one of them a son named Samuel. Mary Ann had been married for little more than two years when her husband was transported to Tasmania. Unable to write--she signed her marriage with a cross--she did not reply to her husband's letter entreating her and the children to join him in Tasmania. However, in 1844, perhaps with paid help, she sent a letter of reconciliation, only to learn that Withers had remarried. In 1847 a letter from the Colonial Office told her that Peter Withers "was living on the 30 Septr. 1846", but that "no further information can be given respecting him". |
