Esther Mary Figg was my great-great-great aunt; she was born on 20 Jan 1828 at Hobart Town in VDL, the first child of ex-convict and tailor William Figg and free woman Margaret Smith. Esther was only 15 years old when she married William Stanley Williams on 11 Apr 1843 at Hamilton in VDL; they had a large family of nine children between the years 1844 and 1866. Esther Williams died on 5 Apr 1912 at South Melbourne, Victoria at age 74, outliving her husband by nearly 25 years.
The reasons why Esther and her younger sister Jane Douglas Figg were placed into the care of the Queens Orphanage School in November 1835 are unclear, although it may have had something to do with unemployment, alcohol and domestic violence; what is intriguing, however, is that Esther and Jane had at least two aunts, two uncles and a set of grandparents living in Hobart at the time they were institutionalised.