John Boucher was born in Chiselborough, Somerset in 1781. He married Ann Brown on 27 January 1805 and had one child. He moved to the Forest of Dean near Newnham and worked as a shepherd and as a house servant. On 14 July 1829, he was convicted of stealing three hurdles from Thomas Tovey a solicitor and member of the gentry from Newnham. He was sentenced to seven years transportation. Boucher spent about six weeks on the convict hulk Justitia at Woolwich before being dispatched to Tasmania on the Bussorah Merchant on 6 October 1829 which arrived on 18 January 1830.
On arrival in Hobart, he was assigned to work on Public Works under Captain Robson. There are no misdemeanours listed on his record and he received his Ticket of Leave 31 Dec 1835 and Freedom Certificate 15 Jul 1836. There is no further sighting of him in records after this.
However, it is possible that he returned to England as a John Boucher (aged 60) appears in the 1841 census living in the Alms House at East Coker, near Chiselborough. In 1851 he is living in Moor Green, Corsham, Wiltshire, working as an agricultural labourer with a wife Mary. In 1861, he is still living at Moor Green and working as an agricultural labourer but his wife had died and he now has a housekeeper. He died on 17 Dec 1862 and left a will with an estate under the value of £20.