More about Grace.

My great, great great grandmother Grace was a Rajah convict.

Grace Stephens lived in Cornwall.  The crime that earned her transportation was 'stealing a gown print'.  It was the second time she had been caught for this offence.  She was born around 1824.  Grace was tried at the Penzance Quarter Sessions on 13h July 1840.  She was only 16 years of age.  Upon arrival in Van Diemen's Land she was immediately assigned to the property of Mr J Archer, Launceston.  From what I can discover, this means she was in service at the property called Panshanger.

Panshanger, Propery of Joseph Archer



Panshanger Property

Grace married Charles Blight, a convict holding a ticket-of-leave, on the 5th February 1844.  A son, John Lachlan Blight, was born in 1845.  Grace was granted a ticket-of-leave in November 1845.  In 1847 another son, Robert was born.   Three girls followed, Martha in 1849, Sarah in 1851 and Emma in 1853.  At some time between Emma's birth in 1853 and 1855, Charles Blight disappears with no trace.  Maybe he went to the gold fields in Victoria, along with hundreds of others, or maybe he died and we haven't discovered the record of this.

Grace remarried on 15th February, 1855 to Charles Dewhurst, where Grace is recorded as a widow, and Charles as a widower.  Charles is my great, great, great Grandfather.  Grace was his second wife.  Charles and Grace went on to have another five children, Grace, Alice, Thomas, Joshua, and William.

There is more to this intriguing story, I'll tell you more about it later,

Bernadette.