SECOND GENERATION
Sophia Vidler (1838 – 1867)

Edwin and Mary Vidler’s second child Sophia Vidler was born in Dapto on 22 January 1839, the first child Henry having died at sea. In a letter to Tony Ryan on 16 October 1991, Lil Wells wrote:

Did you realise Tony that your great great grandmother Sophia Vidler was our first born Australian Vidler baby? She was born two months after the Maitland arrived in Sydney Harbour.

On 8 September 1859, she married Charles Purkiss, at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Jamberoo. Charles was born in Ashton Essex in 1838, and on the marriage
certificate,is shown as being a shopkeeper and farmer. We hold one photograph of Charles and Sophia Purkiss, not good quality, but a better quality one is being sourced.

Charles and Sophia had four children. The first was an unnamed infant who died in 1860.