1819 began very well for Thomas Peters:  “In January, 1819, the Supreme Court assembled in Hobart Town for the first time, and sat in a new house situate at the foot of wellington Bridge and rented for five weeks at a total cost of ten guineas from Thomas Peters, the owner and licensee of a public house in the vicinity known by the sign of the Duke of York.” ~ Hobart General Hospital Its Early History p.5

Thomas Peters was selling property and calling in debts as he prepared to move his family from Hobart Town to his new land at Bagdad. Tragedy struck on 26th May when his wife died of “an inflammation of the throat”. He was left with six children in his care: Charlotte 13, Louisa 10, Mary Ann 9, Richard 7, Sophia 4, and Anne 2. His eldest daughter Elizabeth 17 had married George (Jnr) Armytage eight months earlier. (The death notice mentions eight children but Martha had pre-deceased her mother.)

Mary Ann Peters (nee Hews) was buried in St David’s Cemetery on 29th May 1819 by Reverend Robert (Bobby) Knopwood. The burial ground was called St David's Cemetery as a mark of respect to the memory of the Colony's founding Lt Governor, Lt Col David Collins. Collins himself was buried there in March 1810. The cemetery was closed in 1872. It is now called St David’s Park.

After his wife’s death Thomas Peters continued to sell his houses and to make ready to leave Hobart Town. The advertisement for these houses reveals their location to be adjoining Wellington Bridge, Elizabeth Street. (See: a lithograph by Charles Atkinson from a book Views through Hobart-Town, published by James Wood in 1833 http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/impressions/45023/images/12583/ )