MATTHEWS Richard

Name	Richard MATTHEWS
Country Of Origin	Ireland
Born	1859
Died	1906
Birth/ Baptism	Born 28 May 1859, Kilkenny, Ireland Bapt. 30 May 1859, St Mary’s, Kilkenny City, Ireland
Parents	Godfrey (clockmaker) and Frances Matthews (formerly Dunne)
Apprenticeship	Most likely with his father
Skills	Watchmaker, Jeweller
Work Locations	Latrobe, Mount Bischoff, New Norfolk, Zeehan, Queenstown
Street Address	High Street, New Norfolk Main Street, Zeehan
Marriage/Spouse	1 November 1884, Catholic Church, New Norfolk, to Frances Crosswell
Arrival	1879, Bounty immigrant, (Applicant: Brother, John G Matthews, Latrobe).
Other	1881: At Mount Bischoff, Waratah. April 1881: Business relations with his brother John G Matthews ended. Mid to late 1880s: New Norfolk. Approx. 1891: Business partnership with watchmaker Charles Owen, Zeehan. Approx. September 1892: Bankruptcy, Matthews and Owen. March 1894: Partnership, Matthews and Owen dissolved. September 1898: Bankruptcy, Queenstown. July 1902: Richard Matthews, Queenstown, advertised he would sell uncollected work and repairs in his possession for over one month if not claimed by 31 July. Zeehan & Dundas Herald 21 April 1906: ‘IN MEMORIAM [By R A Dunne]. Honest, unselfish Dick Matthews has gone. What memories that one name recalls of the pioneer days of the Wild West of Tasmania; of the days when men, women, and children flocked to the inhospitable hills of Zeehan and Dundas … In those boisterous days, when the battle of the “stakes” was at its highest, in that memorable November of 1890, and in the very early days of the first Progress Committee on the field, no man was more to the front than our old friend, Dick Matthews. With that sweet Celtic brogue, with its musical cadence, Dick Matthews was heard at all the early public meetings denouncing the wrongs which the citizens and toilers of the West were suffering under … To have called him Richard Matthews would have seemed stiff and formal; to all he was a brother and a man. To have called him other than Dick Matthews would have been out of place and out of tune with the sentiments to which the man gave expression …’
Death	17 April 1906, at his residence, Queenstown Burial: Queenstown Pioneer Cemetery, Queenstown
References
Tasmania Post Office Directory 1901. TAHO: CB7/23/1/1 1879; RGD37/1/43 no817 Marriage 1884. Web: Ancestry: Ireland, Parish Register 1859; Australia City Directories, Tasmania 1887, 1890, 1891, 1903. The Examiner (Launceston) 15 April 1881, 13 September 1892, 19 April 1906; The Mercury (Hobart) 18 March 1881, 17 May 1898; Mt Lyell Standard & Strahan Gazette 25 July 1902; Zeehan & Dundas Herald 15 November 1893, 8 March 1894, 25 July 1902, 19 April 1906; Emu Bay Times & North West & West Coast Advocate 15 September 1898.