Anthony is believed to have been a choir boy at Canterbury Cathedral (although there is no record of him having attended King’s School in Canterbury), and later served as an officer in the 1st East Kent Local Militia for four years.

Presumably noting that his prospects as the youngest son were limited, he emigrated to Tasmania on the ship “Midas” (a 430-ton vessel carrying 4 to 6 guns) in 1820, arriving there with 37 other passengers on 12 January 1821, in the capacity of agricultural agent to a MrGeorge Cartwright, a solicitor of Crayfish Point (now Lower Sandy Bay), Hobart. His application for permission to emigrate, which was approved by Sir Henry Goulburn, the Under Secretary for State in London, on 8 July 1820, was accompanied by a statement detailing his assets, amounting to £109 (and including guns and pistols, a timepiece, and seven sheep in lamb), and stated his intention to use his farming experience. A keen musician, he also took a spinnet and a music box with him from England (the latter currently in the possession of one of Anthony’s great-great-grand-daughters in Australia).

He received a grant of 100 acres near Launceston, Tasmania, where he operated a windmill and later settled on a farm owned by Mr Silas Gatehouse at Oyster Bay. However, he sustained attacks from bushrangers Mathew Brady and gang, for 6 days. in1825, including being kidnapped for six days (a story says that his wife suffered the loss of some fingers from gunshot wounds when attempting to hold the door closed against one such attack). In 1826 they applied for a further land grant in a safer, more populous location, although this may have been unsuccessful as it was against policy for grants to be made to anyone who had sold a previous grant. They settled at Cherry Tree Opening near Sorell (east of Hobart) where they lived at least from 1831 until 1840, with Anthony’s occupation described as grazier and later merchant.

In April 1842, Anthony became responsible for the ferry between Kelly’s Point on North Bruny Island (two miles off shore from Hobart) and Tinderbox Bay on Tasmania, and the Post Office at Kelly’s Point. In 1843 they were living at Brown’s River (now Kingston), in “a wooden residence inhabited by nine persons”.

Shortly afterwards, the family moved to North Bruny Island (the northern tip of Bruny where they lived later, Kelly’s Point, was renamed Dennes Point, a name that survives to this day). On his wife inheriting from her brother in 1842, they built a two-storey house on Bruny called Woodlands (which still stands), from green timber and red bricks made in a gully on the property. Anthony died of cancer on 14 January 1873, at Woodlands, Bruny Is, aged about 82, and his wife on 5 December 1885 (aged 89), both at Woodlands, and they were buried at St Clements, Kingston, Tasmania. Woodlands remained in the family until 1924.