Hi everyone, Having failed completely in my quest to find the origins of the Thomas Smith who was living with my many times great-aunt, Ann Elizabeth Ashton nee Cockerell, in 1821, I'm turning to the brains trust here for help. Thomas Smith, a free man, was involved in a huge hoist from Edward Curr's store in Bathurst Street, along with a host of convicts, and my free rellie A E Ashton. Details follow: " Richard Foster, John Meadowcroft, John Maybery, Wm. Day, Gustavus Lucas, Wm. Hone, and James Kemp, prisoners, and Thos. Smith and Ann Elizabeth Ashton, free persons, charged with being concerned in the burglary and very extensive robbery on the premises of Messrs. Edward Curr and Mason, in Bathurst street, in the night of the 24th ult. were fully committed for trial. Thos. Smith and Gustavus Lucas were also fully committed for trial before a Court of Criminal Jurisdiction on a charge of stealing sheep, the property of James Hooper, of Mount Direction Valley."- Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser (V.D.L.), 8 September 1821 Ann E. got away Scot free - talk about Nepotism. The gang were captured by her brother-in-law, Hobart Town District Constable John Dacres and her former next door neighbour at New Town, Hobart Town Chief Constable Richard Pitt. Her father William Cockerell, who arrived with Collins in 1804 as a free settler, and her cousin-in-law Michael Mansfield, Derwent River Pilot and former New Town Chief Constable, bailed her for £100 - £50 each. Her name appears to have been erased from the trial transcript too! Because this is such a long and complicated tale, that I won't detail all of it. But it does state that Ann E. and Smith were living together, even though Ann E was married to the convict William Ashton - thus my interest in him. My last "sighting" of Thomas Smith was when he appeared in court giving evidence at the trial of Alexander Pearce - he'd been sent to Macquarie Harbour for three years following his trial in Nov. 1822 for the 1821 theft recorded above. (I won't explain why the trial was held so long after his co-conspirators were tried - it's too complex too.) There are conflicting statements in the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence relating to Smith's origins - he was either "Thomas Smith, Born in the Colony, .. " or " SMITH, Thomas. Per "Ganges", 1797…" Fingers crossed that someone can help pin down this mysterious man's identity. Best wishes, Carol Brill, now in Echuca.