Sarah Scarvell was born in 1809, the second daughter of Irish catholic emancipists Edward and Winefred Redmond. Edward, an Irish rebel, and Winefred had been transported for life to New South Wales. Pardoned by 1809, the Redmonds became wealthy landowners with diverse business interests.

In 1828, Sarah Redmond married Captain John Larking Scarvell. They settled in Windsor and lived in Clare House, built for them by Sarah’s father. John and Sarah had ten children, eight of whom survived infancy.

The marriage of the daughter of wealthy Irish Catholic emancipists to a respectable free man completed the family’s rise from convict to respectability in one generation.