Benjamin Smith, my great-great-great-grandfather, born March 17, 1808, in Dagenham, Essex, England, received a seven-year sentence for stealing a pitchfork from his employer at Elmdon, Essex, England. In July 1842, the Candahar sailed up the Derwent River to Hobart, where Benjamin disembarked and was marched to the Jericho Probation Station to serve his sixteen-month probation period. 

On December 6, 1843, George Green Sherwin from a small town in the Central Highlands called Bothwell, hired Benjamin as a labourer to work on his farm, Sherwood. At the termination of his sentence, the application to have his wife Ann and five children - Sarah, James, Benjamin, Zacharias, and Hannah - sent out to join him in the new country was approved. The William Jardine arrived in August 1849 carrying his family and their reunion was complete.

This began my passion for researching Bothwell and the people who lived there during the 1800s, helping to build the picture of my ancestors’ lives, and that has cumulated into this website.

The Bothwell Town Hall came alive when 165 descendants of Benjamin Smith and Ann Hammond gathered for the Smith Family Reunion on March 17, 2007, Benjamin’s 199th birthday. It was with great pleasure and a lot of organising to finally stand in front of my relatives and tell the story of our ancestors.