James Radcliff and Anna Maria Butler
2-Anna Maria Butler was born about 1819 and died on 27 May 1886 in Hobart aged about 67.
Anna married James Radcliff, son of William Radcliff and Margaret Ann Banks, on 27 Sep 1843 in Athy, Ireland. James was born in 1800 in Belfast, Ireland and died in 1853 in London, England at age 53. They had seven children:
- Susan Mary Radcliff 26 Aug 1844 - 1880
- female Radcliff 1846 - 1846
- Elizabeth Frances "Bessie" Radcliff 1848 - 1921
- Hamilton Radcliff 1849 - 1909
- Jessie Radcliff 1851 - 1875
- Anna Maria Radcliff 1853 - 1876
- Crawford Radcliff 1855 - 1860
James Radcliff, a bachelor from Belfast, arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1830 settled on a 2560 acre grant of land at Little Swanport, which he named Lisdillon. By 1838 he had established a farm on the northern portion of his grant including an eight-roomed stone residence, a men's hut, a barn, stockyards, and piggeries. On the coast, about 2.5km south of the farm, Radcliff had erected a salt works including boiling house, windmill and dwelling house, as well as a store, blacksmith's shop, men's huts and overseer's cottage. They give rise to the name of the beach there - Saltworks Beach, accessed via Saltworks Road. They used innovative technologies including an underfloor flue for heating and drying the salt, and a windmill for extracting the salt water from the ocean.
Once completed, the salt works were personally inspected by Lt. Governor, John Franklin who was 'highly impressed'. He described Radcliff as an 'exceedingly industrious and useful settler'. Despite his improvements, Radcliff repeatedly failed to gain an additional grant of land from the Government. In August 1838, after deciding to visit his homeland, Radcliff put the salt works up for lease. They were described as having been 'lately erected, and in 'full operation'.
Radcliff returned to the colony in 1844 accompanied by his new wife, Anna Maria Butler. They resided at his property at Rheban. Finding it increasingly difficult to devote enough time to his interests at Lisdillon, Radcliff once again put it up for lease. By this time the Lisdillon estate had been expanded to about 7000 acres. A succession of lessees and proprietors managed the estate in the early 1850s. By 1854 John Mitchell had acquired the property thus beginning a long association between the Mitchell family and Lisdillon.
In September 1856 James Radcliff travelled back to London for what was meant to be a short visit – but he never returned. Subsequently a bag was found under Waterloo Bridge which contained mutilated remains which were thought to be his. However, no positive identification was made and for many years after, Radcliff's wife met every boat from London that arrived into Hobart in the hope that her husband might one day return.
