Acknowledgements

This website would not have been possible without the help I have received from a number of people:

• The website http://lattonbasin.gentle-highway.info/staunch.htm is where I found the story of the Staunch and through which I met Janet Flanagan.
• Janet Flanagan, researcher with the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust, provided me with information and photographs relating to the family of Joseph Hewer of Swindon, Francis Hewer's son. Much of the information had been gathered from Joseph's descendants, notably (but not exclusively) the late Howard Painter and Bob Lewis, and augmented by Janet's own research. My thanks go to Janet and to the descendants concerned.
• Mike Mills, Chalford historian, spent an afternoon answering my questions about locations in Chalford and sharing information. We established the link between his Mills family and John Matthew Mills who married Francis' daughter, Emma.
• I am extremely grateful to Susan Hood at the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, Tasmania, for the transcription of James Legg alias Hewer’s Convict Indent and Conduct Record.
• I am also grateful to those descendants of Francis Hewer who took the time to contact me via Ancestry.com (before I made my family trees private!).
• My family have shown great understanding of my preoccupation with just one branch of our family. They have listened to my recounts of my discoveries, joined me on walking the length of the Stroudwater and Thames & Severn canals (still to be finished) and admired my first attempts at building a website. They have not blanched at my suggestion that we should extend our trip to Australia in 2014 by visiting Tasmania! My love and thanks go to them.

Steph Richards