Felton Mathew travelled from his native England to the colony of New South Wales in 1829 to take up a position as Assistant Surveyor of Roads and Bridges. His cousin, Sarah, later joined him in the NSW capital, Sydney, where they married on 21 January 1832. They lived at Windsor but spent much time at Felton's field work to the north and northwest of Sydney. Sarah frequently accompanied Felton on his field expeditions.

In 1840 Felton and Sarah moved to New Zealand, where he was to take up the position of acting Surveyor-General. He selected the site for the intended capital, Auckland, and mapped out the nucleus of that city. In 1845 Felton and Sarah returned to England to appeal against the decision by NZ Governor George Grey denying him permanent appointment as Surveyor-General. He was unsuccessful but instead was confirmed as Deputy Postmaster-General and Resident Police Magistrate. He returned to NZ but found himself in continual disagreement with Governor Grey. In 1847 Felton and Sarah Mathew sold all their possessions and sailed once more for England.

Already ill at the start of the voyage, Felton died en route in Lima, Peru, on 26 November 1847.

The National Library of Australia (NLA) holds diaries attributed to Felton and Sarah Mathew, consisting of six numbered exercise books and one other short volume titled Stray Leaves from the Journal of a Wanderer in Australia. Book 1 of the exercise book series was written by Felton and traces his voyage from England to New South Wales and the early period of his surveying work in New South Wales. Sarah took over writing the daily journal in exercise books numbers 2 – 6. She also made an embellished version of a part of book 1 into the separate Stray Leaves. Transcribed in these web pages are Felton's Book 1 and Sarah's Stray Leaves.