Sarah Anne Ashton Myers was the second child born to Ann Elizabeth Ashton, formerly Littlefield, nee Cockerell, and her third partner Thomas Myers. Sarah's younger sister Louisa, born in 1825, only lived for a few weeks, and was buried in St. David's Cemetery - her father was interred in the same grave much later.

Sarah Ann was baptised in Hobart Town on 13 November 1829.
When she was just sixteen years old, Sarah Ann married the recently widowed John Felmingham, then thirty-three years old, on 5 March 1845,in Hobart Town.

John's first wife Eleanor Wright, whom he married in Campbell Town in 1836, was a family friend: her own mother Eleanor Wright was a witness to the wedding of Sarah Ann's mother Ann Elizabeth Littlefield nee Cockerell, and William Ashton, in 1816. Eleanor Felmingham nee Wright had died of complications not long after the birth of the Felmingham's second daughter, Elizabeth, on 22 December 1843. Their first child, William was born in 1838 and their second, Eliza was born in 1841 but died a few weeks after her birth on 24 January 1842 at Hamilton, not far from New Norfolk. Despite theloss of her mother when she was only a month or so old, Elizabeth survived, and when Sarah Ann married John at such a young age, she also became the step-mother of six year old William and one year old Elizabeth.

John Felmingham was a convict who had arrived in Van Diemen's Land on the Mary in 1830....

The year after Sarah Ann Ashton Myers' marriage to John, Sarah Ann's first child, and John's second son was born. Named after his father, John Felmingham junior was born on 25 November 1846 in Hobart Town -he was also the first of Ann Elizabeth Ashton and Thomas Myers' grandchildren. Sometime during the year John junior was born, Sarah Ann and John moved to Brushy Plains, in the little township of Buckland on the road to the East Coast. John was the licensee of theTravellers Rest Hotel there between 1846 and at least 1852. The hotel, reputed to have been built by John, was later renamed the Buckland Inn, and still stands today.
Sarah Ann's first daughter, Ellen Felmingham, was baptised in Hobart Town two years after John Junior was born, on 30 October 1848.

Tragically, little Emma accidentally died at Brushy Plains, when a tree log fell on her. An inquest into the accident was held on 24 December 1850, the day after Emma died, when it was recorded that Ellen Felmingham came to her death on the 23rd day of December at Brushy Plains by a log accidentally falling upon her. Her father John was recorded as a publican at the 'Sign of the Travellors Rest,' at Brushy Plains.

Late the following year Sarah Ann had a second daughter, whom thecouple named Emma. Little Emma Felmingham was baptised on 18 October 1851. Emma died of influenza two years later, in 1853 - in the spaceof two years Sarah Ann lost two of her three children. Moreover, John had lost one daughter to his first wife Eleanor, and his wife Eleanor as well, and two daughters to his second wife, Sarah Ann. Only John Felmingham's two sons, William and John, and his daughter Elizabeth were still living by 1853.

Elizabeth Jane Lawrence was born to Sarah Ann and John Lawrence, and she was baptised on 4 April 1855 in Hobart. Around the same time Sarah Ann began her relationship with John Lawrence, John Felminghambegan a relationship with Ann Long, which was to last for the rest ofhis life. Their first daughter, Susannah, was born in 1855 in Spring Bay, but she sadly died the same year in Sorell. Almost unbelievably, John Felmingham had lost four daughters of the five born to him to three different partners between 1842 and 1855 - only Elizabeth, by then twelve years old, had survived.

John Felmingham and Ann Long's next child was a son, Charles William Felmingham, born in Spring Bay in 1857.

John Felmingham's 1861 petition to divorce Sarah Ann sheds light on her relationship with Elizabeth Jane's father, an earlier partner, William Smallman - his reason for leaving his marriage and commencing his relationship with Ann Long.

John Felmingham and Ann Long's next child was a son, Charles William Felmingham, born in Spring Bay in 1857.