Itemised account for William Riley for stationery received from William McGarvie, 2 April 1835

MLMSS 10238

fonds

2 April 1835

9633740

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.

William Riley (1807-1836), pastoralist and sketcher was a son of pioneer pastoralist Alexander Riley who came to NSW as a free settler in 1804. Alexander ran sheep on his property, Raby, near Liverpool exporting wool to England from 1812 onwards. Between 1827 and 1830 his merinos won every gold medal awarded by the NSW Agricultural Society. A sketch of the two of the prize specimens by William was published in London as a lithograph in 1828 (copy held in Riley family papers, A 111). William died suddenly in 1836.

References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcgarvie-william-2400 (Accessed 5 June 2019).
The Dictionary of Australian Artists, Joan Kerr (ed.), 1992, and Design and Art Australia Online. https://www.daao.org.au/bio/william-edward-riley/biography/ (Accessed 5 June 2019)

An itemised account for William Riley for stationery received from William McGarvie, 2 April 1835. One sheet of laid paper, folded to letter size, manuscript, 1827 watermark, stamped at Sydney GPO, Liverpool NSW and Bathurst Post Paid. The itemised account was mailed by McGarvie to Riley at Raby and consists of a list of stationery purchases made by him. A note at the bottom requests that Riley ‘favour him [McGarvie] with the amount of the above account at an early period.’ Apart from stationary items such as ½ ream of foolscap, 100 quills, 2 penknives and two sheep return books – all items that one might expect would be needed by someone running a sheep station - the account also includes two books: Moore’s Melodies, by Thomas Moore the Irish poet, and ‘Shepherd’s Lectures’, which refers to Lectures on the Horticulture of New South Wales, by Thomas Shepherd.

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