Biographical entry Bonwick, James (1817 - 1906)

Summary

James Bonwick was a competent and industrious amateur in the fields of anthropology and geography. In his professional life he worked as a teacher, historian and archivist and published widely.

Details

Born Lingfield, Surrey, England, 8 July 1817. Died Southwick, near Brighton, Sussex, 6 February 1906. Primary school teacher, England 1833-41; manager, proposed normal school, Hobart Town 1841-42; established a boarding school, Hobart 1843, moved it to Glenorchy 1847; opened a private school, Adelaide 1850; Victorian goldfields 1852; lecturer, then proprietor of "Australian Gold Digger's Monthly Magazine and Colonial Family Visitor" 1852-53; unsuccessful land agency 1853-55; opened boarding school near Kew 1855-56; inspector, Denominatonal Schools Board 1856-59; England 1859-62; opened school at St Kilda, Melbourne 1862-75; immigration agent to lecture in England for the Queensland government 1874-75, 1882-83; transcription of early Australian source material for various state governments 1883-1902. Portraits of him are in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Angus & Robertson - Records, 1824 - 1933, ML MSS 314; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Bonwick - Records, 1776 - 1815, A6984-6; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Bonwick - Records, 1841 - 1900; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Bonwick - Records, 1796 - 1800, A6987; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• James Bonwick - Records, 1801 - 1803, H 11598 and others; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Bonwick, James, Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip: being a History of the country now called Victoria, up to the arrival of Mr. Superintendent Latrobe, in October, 1839, Robertson, Melbourne, 1856, 142 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Featherstone, Guy, 'Bonwick, James (1817-1906), teacher', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 3, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 190-182. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030182b.htm. Details

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Bonwick, James', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-458734. Details

See also

• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/scripts/smv-dynindex.php3?EID=P000083. Details