Letter from William McGarvie, in Sydney, to his sister Mrs Ann McDonald, in Glasgow, 13 April 1833

MLMSS 10239

fonds

13 April 1833

9633449

0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript

William McGarvie (1810-1841), journalist, bookseller and pastoralist, was born in Scotland. In 1828 he followed his brother John to Sydney. He immediately took charge of the Australian Stationery Warehouse in Lower George Street which Robert Howe ran in conjunction with the Sydney Gazette. As well as selling books, the warehouse also had a circulating library and McGarvie’s historically important catalogue of its books was printed in 1829. In 1831, with two partners, McGarvie imported a printing press and they began publication of the Sydney Herald (which was renamed the Sydney Morning Herald in 1842 after its purchase by John Fairfax). After editing only six issues McGarvie resigned from the partnership in April 1831 and returned to Scotland. He came back again in October 1832 and resumed bookselling at the Australian Stationary Warehouse. He published a small number of books under his own imprint including Thomas Shepherd’s Lectures on the horticulture of New South Wales (1835) and Lectures on landscape gardening in Australia, (1836). He then acquired a land grant at Port Macquarie and after 1835 devoted most of his time to it. He died in Sydney on 1 April 1841, aged 31, after contracting a severe cold. He was survived by his wife, Isabella, and a three-week-old son.

Ann McDonald and her husband John migrated from Glasgow to Sydney where they joined Ann's mother, father and brother William, arriving in 1834 aboard the Eldon.

References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol.2, 1967.
Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcgarvie-william-2400 (Accessed 5 June 2019).
Mitchell Library correspondence file.

Manuscript letter from William McGarvie, in Sydney, to his sister Ann McDonald, in Glasgow. One sheet of laid paper folded to letter-size, stamped ‘India Letter Eastbourne’ and with two other postmarks including a stamp from Sydney, remnants of red wax seal, with a small piece missing along one edge. Written by William McGarvie not long after his return to Sydney from Scotland, he had resumed his job at the Australian Stationary Warehouse but was harbouring ambitions to set up a house and print shop of his own as he explains: ‘I have just purchased a piece of ground next to where I am and intend in a few weeks to commence building a fine house and shop for myself … It will be two stories high and contain four rooms with back kitchen etc. and a large handsome shop with a separate entrance for the house.’ In the remainder of the letter McGarvie encourages his sister, who had been ill, and her husband, who was out of work, to emigrate to NSW. ‘Numbers of free emigrants are arriving here every day’ he tells her and he would be able to find work for her husband. By contrast their parents, who are in Sydney, ‘are still thinking after the sweets of Glasgow’ and would have no objection to returning there. At the end of the letter William promises his sister £10 to be paid on demand by a Mr Lumsden on presentation of a slip from the bottom of the letter. The slip in question is missing from the letter.

Out of copyright: Author died more than 70 years ago
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

See also: Letter from Ann McDonald in Sydney to her brothers and sisters in Glasgow, 10 May 1834, MLMSS 9573.