Thomas Berwick

[1] Born in 1825, Thomas Berwick worked as a master mariner until he was found guilty of scuttling his ship and sentenced to twenty years transportation.

Although most respectable occupations were closed to ex-convicts, the colony was desperately short of teachers, yet unable to pay a sufficient wage to attract them.

Thomas Berwick married Jeanie Ruxton, whose father George had been similarly accused in 1862 for the destruction of a ship, the 'Kate Kearney'; he was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Although the strain of supporting such a large family might have induced Thomas to defraud the insurance company, at least 15 similar prior incidents were cited at his trial.

Upon the death of her husband Thomas in 1893, Kate (née Walters) married her brother-in-law, George Ruxton Berwick, who died shortly after, in 1897.