Info about Robert Ridge (the first) RIDGE

After much research...I have decided that the family story that says that Robert came home and found his wife Elizabeth meeting with LDS missionaries, beat up the missionary (William Fowler) and left for Australia, can't be all true.  Robert was convicted Mar 1843 and sent to Tazmania to serve a twenty year sentence.  William Fowler (writer of We Thank Thee o God for a Prophet) did not join the church until 1849 and served as a missionary in England from 1850-1857.  It is also told that William Fowler was Elizabeth cousin.  This i cannot prove or disprove.  Elizabeth would have been 15 years older than Fowler and while much of Fowler's ancestry is known, we only have Elizabeth's father and mother...nothing beyond.  Now it is certainly possible that Elizabeth met with Fowler while he was on his mission, but that would have been after Robert had been sent to the penal colony of Tazmania.  It isn't known if Elizabeth ever joined the church, but she did immigrate to America and died in Ohio.  Until we have more info on Elizabeth's parents and their siblings, we can't tell if Elizabeth and Fowler were cousins.  Still, it's a pretty good story, especially if you are trying to hide that Robert was arrested as the head of a band of thieves, sent to Tazmania and never seen again.