The Story of Thomas Anlezark & Ann Starmer - 1767 - 1834
88 pages, 148 references
AU$41.00
The Story of Thomas Anlezark & Ann Starmer - 1767 - 1834
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” - John Donne
John Donne may have been born some 200 years prior to the subjects of our tale, Thomas Ainsworth Anlezark and Ann Starmer, but his words were never more appropriate than when applied to the circumstances of their lives.
Both Thomas and Ann were forced to leave their families in England after making conscious, although possibly irrational, decisions to break the law. We will never really know, nor can we ever really understand the situations that led to these acts but we can be assured that, as Donne reflected in his poetry, the decisions were made by the ‘continent’ surrounding their lives.
As a reader of this book it is most probable that you are descended from these two people. Their lives, the circumstances of their existence and the environments they survived in, shaped them, moulded them and forced them to be the people they grew to be.
Their hopes, dreams, fears, trials, successes and failures influenced their children. And as you read this tale knowing that the genetic makeup of these two people is still evident in your body today, feel the grief and the horror that they lived through, but take from this a sense of pride in knowing the part they played in the shaping of Australian society.
Be proud of them both.