 of course, being bound well before Bent received his own equipment. From 1818 the government bookbinder was Scottish convict Robert Drysdale who arrived on the Lady Castlereagh in June of that year, aged twenty-two, under a sentence of fourteen years for housebreaking. He was not really Andrew Bent’s own assigned man, but was based at the printing office, working under Bent’s general direction. He probably bound most copies of Bent’s 1824 almanac, although not the one pictured above. Advertisements in 1819 and 1820 indicate that Drysdale also did bookbinding on his own account in his spare time, apparently unimpeded by a lame right arm.
This volume of the Hobart Town Gazette for 1820 which belonged to early Hobart identity James Kelly, was probably bound by Drysdale. It has simple blind-tooled decoration and a printed label pasted onto the front. The convict register shown below is an early example of government binding and may also be Drysdale’s work.
Drysdale was often in trouble. Although acquitted on a charge of neglect of duty, he also, during his association with Bent, spent seven nights in gaol for being absent from his lodgings at night and was flogged for being out after hours. There may well have been increasing friction after Bent’s new binding equipment arrived. In February 1824, after ‘repeated disobedience of orders and insolence to Andrew Bent’, Drysdale was sacked and spent a week in a cell on bread and water.
Drysdale’s short-lived replacement was another housebreaker, this time from Surrey. Philip Caton or Keating (alias John Smith) was twenty-two when he arrived on the Morley in January 1823, transported for life and bearing a very bad character. He had already served seven years on the Retribution hulk for an armed robbery. Part of that sentence overlapped with Bent’s younger brother Benjamin, who served time on the same hulk. Soon after arrival in Hobart Caton was flogged for an assault, and while in Bent’s service was accused of stealing a shirt and of a robbery. He was acquitted on both charges, but the disruption to his work would have irritated Bent exceedingly as around this time he lost the services of two of his compositors after a drunken affray.
Given his criminal history in England young Caton probably lacked experience. Mistakes sometimes occurred. In July 1824 the Printer earnestly requested that ‘always in future’ when work was sent from the public departments it be ‘accompanied by specific Directions, and an official Requisition for the Materials or Books, in writing.’
Caton absconded on 1 September 1824 and eventually made his way back to England. He reappeared in Hobart in 1827, transported (for the third time) under the name of Robert Collins. He had no further association with Bent or bookbinding and after receiving a conditional pardon in 1845, moved with his wife to Port Philip.
Late 1824 to 1830
Bent immediately advertised for a bookbinder, stressing that he required a ‘sober and steady’ man. It is not known who replaced Caton. Bent continued to advertise his bookbinding services throughout this period, so must have had at least one binder who, presumably, whether bond or free, behaved well. An advertisement early in 1828 testifies to the superiority of his workmen (perhaps suggesting he had more than one) as well as the burgeoning musical life in Hobart Town.
Other bookbinding supplies were available locally. From 1823 bookbinder’s knives or plough knives were occasionally advertised among assorted imported ironmongery; in 1827 John Morrisby advertised that he had commenced the tanning and dressing of leather, including bookbinding leather; and in 1829 the extensive list of goods available at Watchorn’s Wellington stores included strong bookbinders’ paper. The Commissariat also advertised for local tenders for dressed sheepskins for bookbinding, for mill boards and marbled paper.
The large volume shown below is Bent’s own annotated copy of the official Hobart Town Gazette (Ross and Howe) for 1826. The smaller volume (1827) has no indication of provenance, but is bound in a very