Sarah Louisa (Goodwin) Bunker (1791 - 1872)

Born 1 Dec 1791 in Norfolk Island, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Wife of Benjamin Briscoe — married 24 Oct 1808 (to 1819) in Hobart Town, Tasmania, Australia

Wife of Mark Ashby Bunker — married 30 May 1820 (to 1868) in Tasmania, Australia

Descendants

Died 26 Dec 1872 at age 81 in Colebrook, Tasmania, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Irene Dillon [send private message] and Justine Davies [send private message]

Biography

Birth

Sarah was born on Norfolk Island, the second daughter of her parents, both convicts. Six children were born after her, with five living to adulthood.

Records are limited for Norfolk Island.

Childhood

Sarah lived on Norfolk Island until she was sixteen, when the Norfolk Island colony was discontinued and the family was moved to Van Diemen's Land.

Hobart must have been a very different place to Norfolk Island, with its cold English climate and heavily wooded hills. The bustling port, the inns and boarding houses, the shops and the convicts still in chains would have been a change from the almost tropical island, isolated by dangerous seas and lack of commerce.

It is likely the Goodwin children had the roam of their settlement on Norfolk, and seems likely that they were then free to roam in Hobart Town.

First Marriage

Somewhere in her first year in Hobart, probably her first months in Hobart, Sarah met Benjamin Briscoe, a convict in the sixth year of a seven year sentence.

They were married on 24th October 1808 in Hobart Town. Benjamin was 28 and Sarah was nearly 17.

Family

Benjamin and Sarah's eldest child, Mary, was born in 1809 in Hobart Town. Their second two, George and William, were born in 1812 and 1813. There seems to be no registration for these births.

The fourth child, Benjamin, was born 23 Jun 1815 in Hobart Town, and he died when his mother was pregnant with the next child, Ann.

At some point about now, Benjamin and Sarah moved to land at Clarence Plains.

Eliza was the youngest child, born 12th Oct 1818.

In 1819, Benjamin drowned while trying to cross a flooded river.

Sarah must have found life hard as a 28 year old single mother in a dangerous place with so many young children. Her plight stirred the sympathies of Hobart Town. A notice was placed in the Hobart Town Gazette ^[1]:

The Widow of the late Benjamin Briscoe, who is left with Five Children by the unfortunate Accident of her Husband being lately drowned in the River Derwent, at a Time when he was their Support, but most unhappily for the Widow his Affairs were rather in disorder - With a View to put his Debts in a train of Settlement she looks with confidence to the kind Assistance of the Humane and Charitable, to whom her appeal she is confident will not be made in vain ...

Money was pledged and undoubtedly helped Sarah sort the finances.

Second Marriage

Remarriage was a sensible option for a young widow, and luckily the right man was nearby and willing to take on the responsibility of a large family.

In 1820, Sarah married Mark Ashby Bunker, aged 31, a convict on a life sentence.

Later Family

Mark and Sarah's first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1821. Margaret was born in 1823 and Mark in 1824. Their final five children were all girls: Ruth, Maria, Lucy, Hannah and Caroline.

Mark and Sarah continued living at Clarence Plains until the birth of Hannah, then are back in Hobart for Caroline's birth.

Later on they seem to have moved to Jerusalem, in Tasmania, where Mark died in 1868, aged 79. He was buried at Colebrook.

Death

Sarah died three years later, a few weeks after her 80th birthday. She was believed to be aged 78, a few years having gotten lost somewhere along the way ^[2]

Bunker - On 28th December, at Jerusalem, Sarah, relict of the late Mark Bunker, aged 78.

• Fact: Burial (29 December 1872) Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Sources

1. ↑ Hobart Town Gazette 11 Dec 1819 page 1
2. ↑ The Mercury 30 Dec 1871 Deaths

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 14 December 2023, 19:57), entry for Sarah Goodwin (PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LZJY-T64 ); contributed by various users.

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Irene Dillon for creating WikiTree profile Goodwin-2030 through the import of OKeefeFam.GED on Jul 21, 2013. C

• Unsourced family tree handed down to Justine (Scott) Davies.