Item 12 to 14 - George Washington Walker to Esther Stickney

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AU TAS UTAS SPARC S9-12 to 14

Title

George Washington Walker to Esther Stickney

Date(s)

  • 1834-1835 (Creation)

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2 letters and duplicate

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Name of creator

(died 1834)

Biographical history

Richard Stickney (d.1834) was a young Quaker from the North of England. His sister, Esther, was a friend of George Washington Walker, the Quaker who accompanied James Backhouse on a missionary journey to Australia in 1831, and she asked him to look for her only brother, young Richard, who had run away to sea on an Australia bound ship, because of hardships in his job. By 1834, however, he had written to his sisters from Sydney but, before G.W. Walker was able to trace him there, his uncle Isaac Stickney received news of his nephew's death by drowning in November 1834 at the mouth of the Manning River N.S.W., from Thomas Soltit who kept the "Jolly Tar" public house where Stickney lodged in Sydney. Isaac Stickney wrote to Governor Burke of New South Wales enclosing Soltit's letter and asking for further information. This, together with information and papers from the Port Master, was given to Backhouse and Walker, who discovered that Richard had used an assumed name "Robert Smith" and had been employed by Thomas Steel as one of the seamen sailing up the East Coast for cedar on a small coasting craft which sank near the mouth of the Manning River, and that Steel had Stickney'S watch, gun and some old books (nautical works and 3 or 4 religious Friends' works). Stickney's own letter to his sister Sarah in 1834, with these papers, expressed regret at the grief he had caused his family and described his impressions of Sydney. He found that "the country born inhabitants are now becoming numerous and will soon form a sufficiently distinct people, they are a facsimile of the Americans both in body and mind, tall rawboned and muscular, with a most exalted opinion of themselves ¬ indeed in most athletic exercises as cricket, rowing or boxing they bear away more than their share of prizes. They are mostly ignorant to the last degree." The "currency lasses" he thought "not very elegant" but "there is one accomplishment not generally reckoned in the female list in which they excell they can most of them .swim." He remarked too that 99 percent of the children had fair hair. Richard Stickney attended the Friends (Quaker) Meeting House in Sydney when he had time. George Washington Walker wrote to Esther Stickney also of Quaker matters, his journey, botanical specimens, etc.

Name of creator

(1800-1859)

Biographical history

George Washington Walker (1800-1859), Quaker, shopkeeper and humanitarian, was born on 19 March 1800 in London, the twenty-first child of John Walker (1726-1821) by his second wife, Elizabeth, née Ridley. Because of the death of his mother and the absence of his aged father engaged in the saddle trade in Paris, he was brought up by his grandmother in Newcastle. He was educated by a Wesleyan schoolmaster near Barnard Castle, and apprenticed in 1814 to a linen draper. Impressed by the probity and wisdom of his Quaker employers and James Backhouse of York, a leading Quaker minister, he left the Unitarian persuasion of his family in 1827 and became a member of the Society of Friends. The next year he formed the first Temperance Society in Newcastle.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-george-washington-2764

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Deposited by Miss Amy Rowntree through A.C.T. 1953

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Scope and content

Letters written by George Washington Walker to Esther Stickney dated April 1834 and November 1835 regarding : Journal writing, Esther's afflictions, parental discipline, plant specimens, glad to hear her brother had given "proofs of his best feelings being exercised towards his family, Barclay's Apology, Backhouse's health (26 April 1834, also copy "per favour T. Mather"); thank for journal; search for Richard and information about his death, his job with Thomas Steel and lodging with Thomas Soltit and wife who kept the "Jolly Tar" public house. his property; the Meeting House in Sydney (November 1835)

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Available for reference

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This material is made available for personal research and study purposes under the University of Tasmania Standard Copyright Licence. For any further use permission should be obtained from the copyright owners. For assistance please contact Special.Collections@utas.edu.au

When reusing this material, please cite the reference number and provide the following acknowledgement:
“Courtesy of the UTAS Library Special & Rare Collections”

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HE Aug 2018

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