Robert Howe - Diary, 1 August 1822 - 4 April 1823

B 846/1

fonds

1 August 1822 - 4 April 1823

423685

Microfilm : CY 2117, frames 1-74 (B 846/1)

1 box - 0.03 Meters
Textual Records - (manuscript)

Robert Howe (1795-1829) was the son of Government Printer and convict George Howe. He was born in England and travelled with his parents to New South Wales when George was sentenced to transportation for life for shoplifting. Robert helped in the printing office when his father began publishing The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser from 5 March 1803.
Robert Howe experienced a spiritual awakening around 1820 following what had been a dissipated life. He joined the Methodists in Sydney and befriended Rev. Walter Laury, a Wesleyan minister, for whom this diary is written while Laury was in Tonga.
Howe's diary records religious gatherings in Sydney and Parramatta, the arrival and departure of ships in the colony, and other events including the birth of his second son on 11 November 1822.

Title, barely legible, scratched on front cover reads: `Rev. W. Laury Tonga. Letter and journal April ...'

A copy of Howe's diary, transcribed by Rev. A.C. Laury in 1939, is held at B 846/2 (microfilm copy CY 2117, frames 75-135). Laury has included some explanatory notes in his transcription.