Ahh..... Thank you so much.
This is new information to me.
Australian Royalty as Jack Thompson would say.
So to summarize, in the 1843 census, William describes himself as an "other free person" and Elizabeth is described as having arrived in the colony as a free settler. By 1843, their family should have consisted of 4 or 5 children; 2 from Elizabeth's first marriage to Edward Thomas and 2 or 3 from her second "marriage" to William (Hannah was born in 1843, so may or may not have been around at the time).
Still puzzling that the marriage of William and Elizabeth appears not to have occurred until 1869.
On another matter, does this 1843 census information have anything about my other Tasmanian mystery, Thomas Howell and Margaret Wallace? This is the subject of another topic, so I will post the same query over there.
Brendan