George Whitfield. Gunmaker. Belfast & Sydney

 

George Whitfield

Gunsmith & Taxidermist

Sydney

 

+George Whitfield, early Sydney gunsmith and taxidermist : autograph letter, signed, dated 1840

WHITFIELD George (1808-1864)

# 14023
Entire letter addressed to Robert J. Pennent Esqr., Belfast, Ireland, cancelled with oval PAID SHIP LETTER SYDNEY OC 9 1840 in red, and straight-line SHIP LETTER in black; arrival marking BELFAST FE 17 1841; manuscript in ink written in a neat hand on 3 sides of one folded folio sheet of gilt-edged writing paper; address panel on the outer side; original folds; clean and legible.
George Whitfiled, a native of Belfast, arrived in Sydney early in 1834. A skilful gunsmith, he first went into partnership with the gunmaker John Samuel Lambard, but by 1839 had opened his own business, G. Whitfield's Gun Manufactory and Repository of Stuffed Birds. Whitfield soon became the largest firearms dealer in the colony; his shop was illustrated in Fowles' Sydney in 1848, and he supplied the guns for Edmund Kennedy's ill-fated Cape York expedition. An account of Whitfield's remarkable life and career in Sydney, which ended with his being shot by a disgruntled employee, may be read in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
George Whitfield's letter was carried on the ship William Wise, which sailed from Sydney on October 11 1840 and arrived at Gravesend on February 13 1841; the letter was delivered in Belfast a mere four days later. He writes to Robert Pennent concerning his own nephew, William John Whitfield, for whom he is arranging a passage on a ship to Sydney. Whitfield has paid £30 to Messrs. Martin and McDowell, which he hopes will enable his nephew to 'come here in respectable stile'. Whitfield continues with news about his own business in Sydney:
'I flatter myself that it will give you pleasure to know that my circumstances are daily improving, so as to exceed my most sanguine expectations, and I am at present Master of the Principal Gun Establishment and Bird Preservatory in N.S. Wales, and from this circumstance I pledge myself that from the arrival of William John Whitfield in this Colony it shall be my most anxious endeavour to make him fit as a Mechanic for that Society in which it will be his priviledge to move, without aspiring to any thing beyond an upright Mechanic, which was his poor Mother's last request of me when dying.'
Whitfield then gives Pennent instructions regarding a sum of money he has deposited into a Belfast bank account which is intended 'for the sole benefit of the boy' and is not to be drawn until 'he, William John Whitfield is of age (should it please Almighty God to spare him)'.
William John Whitfield (1823 - ?) did indeed help fulfil his mother's dying wish. He came to Sydney in the early 1840s and worked in his uncle's business for over two decades. With George's murder in 1864 he took over the business and ran it until 1866. William also inherited George Whitfield's personal estate.

$ 1,350.00 AUD


This letter should be read in conjuction with our blog of 23/9/2015.

The above item kindly forwarded by Douglas Stewart Fine Books Pty Ltd..
Photographs of the document are available via the attached links.
Our sincere thanks to Doug Stewart.

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In addition, we would like to thank Mr Leslie Martin for bringing this item to our attention.

                                            Dave Stroud. ramrodantiques.co.uk