1841 Census at home at "Dops" in Redruth, as miner/copper aged 35 with wife Mary (30) and children Mary (6), Elizabeth (4), Jane (2), Emma (1 month). The two sons William & John are not recorded on the gravestone.
There is a John Ripper dying in 1850 in Redruth per General Register Office.
There is another daughter, older than John.
I have a letter from George H Rippere Jnr. dated 24 Jun 1994.
"I am interested in a John Ripper born Redruth circa 1800 died circa 1850. His wife was Mary Ann Hart and had at least one son John born 22 Aug 1843 who came to the United States in 1850. William Ripper was also a Methodist Minister". 100 South Sunrise Way #179, Palm Springs, California 92262, USA.
The gravestone in Redruth St Uny churchyard reads as follows:- "John RIPPER died 11th December 1850 aged 50; also of Mary Ann wife of the above who died 26th June 1875 aged 64; Richard Henry, their son who died 18th October aged 3; William Hart their son who died at Wallaroo, South Australia 3rd December 1869 aged 24; Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works do follow them; Also Elizabeth Ann their daughter who died 2nd May 1878 aged 42; Also Jane their daughter who died 11th March 1879 aged 11".
This is a grave I have inspected personally but the detail does not closely correspond with other known data. Mary Ann's death is shown in the General Register Office as being in the second quarter of 1874, aged 63. Jane could not have been 11 when she died, she would have then been born in 1868 which is 18 years after the death of her father. The entry in the General Register Office shows a death of a Jane in the Redruth registration district in the second quarter of 1879 aged 40. The General Register Office has a birth entry in 1838 of a Jane Ripper in the Redruth registration district. There is no entry in the death registers at the GRO of a William Hart Ripper.
Another letter from George Rippere states the following "... My great grandfather John (B?) Ripper born Redruth 22nd August 1843 (my information) came to the U.S. in 1872 - by his own handwritten account and added the 'e' to Ripper at the time of Jack the Ripper (1888) for obvious reasons. He was a methodist minister at Orient, Long Island, New York and died 25th November 1920. I have a 15 page handwritten account of his life in the States. He had 6 children .... My grandfather was named William Hart Rippere .... signed George 'Hotch' Ripper (middle name Hotchkiss)."
This information does not tie together. The gravestone was probably erected in the latter half of the 1870's and some of the detail could be from people's memory at the time; the people most likely to remember had died. Some of the detail can be properly established by cross referencing the GRO with the gravestone.
Work which can be done to add to this knowledge could be to investigate the emigration/immigration lists at the Society of Genealogists in London, or the ships' manifests at Kew Public Record Office. The South Australia Family History Society have (I think) made a record of the inscriptions of the graves in their area and may reveal a William Hart Ripper. These transcriptions may be at the Cornwall Family History Society in Truro or even in the Cornish Studies Record Office in Redruth. There is a lady called Mrs P M Body who lives at 28 Chauvel Circle, Chapman, ACT 2611, Australia who is a member of the Cornwall Family History Society who is researching the name Hart in Redruth. She has replied (30 Aug 1994) with interesting detail but no tie into this family of Hart at present.
Their marriage was witnessed by William Dawe & Elizabeth Richards.