Sally Bloomfield – ANDREW BENT: Father of the Free Press in Australia

Mary Bent

21 Feb 202019 Feb 2020

Andrew Bent’s Irish born wife, Mary Kirk, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land, like her husband, as a convict. We know she played a central role in his story for thirty…

Early Almanacs

8 Nov 20193 Nov 2019

Andrew Bent’s seven almanacs, published annually from 1824 to 1830, collectively comprise some of his most significant printing. Their survival rate has in general been better than that of his…

Last days

28 Jun 201928 Jun 2019

DIED ... At the Benevolent Asylum, on the 26th instant, Mr. Andrew Bent, printer, aged 55 years, formerly of Van Diemen's Land. (Sydney Morning Herald 28 Aug. 1851) How had…

Marginalia

1 May 201929 Jun 2019

The 2018 conference of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand - Marginalia: Bibliography at the Margins - highlighted handwritten annotations as a fertile field of study. Early Australian…

“Michael Howe” turns 200!

15 Mar 201915 Mar 2019

Today - 15 March 2019 - is a special anniversary in the annals of Australian printing and publishing. Two hundred years ago in Hobart Town emancipist printer Andrew Bent published…

Apprenticeship

17 Dec 201817 Dec 2018

How Andrew Bent became so skilled at the printing craft has long remained a mystery. In a memoir of Bent published in the Mercury in 1881 James Erskine Calder…

Philip Street

26 Oct 201826 Oct 2018

Philip Street was convicted alongside Andrew Bent at the Old Bailey on 1 November 1810. Philip's family background helps to explain why he was granted a full pardon for their…