Timeline – ANDREW BENT: Father of the Free Press in Australia

Benjamin Bent

12 Mar 202111 Mar 2021

Benjamin Bent, the middle of the three Bent brothers, arrived in Australia, like his two siblings, as a transported felon. He had his first encounter with the magistrates, and first…

George Clark

28 Apr 202028 Apr 2020

George Clark was Andrew Bent’s predecessor as Government Printer in Van Diemen's Land. His time as a printer in Hobart Town, from around 1810 to 1815, was relatively short and…

Mary Bent

21 Feb 202028 Apr 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…

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…

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…

Hall of Fame, 2018

30 Nov 201830 Nov 2018

Speaking at the Legends of Australian Journalism dinner held in Melbourne on 16 November 2018, Michael Smith situated the contemporary inductees into the Australian Media Hall of Fame within the…

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…

Conviction, 1810

5 Oct 20185 Nov 2018

Old Bailey, London Thursday 1 November 1810 Just after 8am on Thursday 1 November 1810, with a jury of 12 Londoners duly sworn, the stage was set for the trial…

Baptism, 1791

22 Jul 201812 Oct 2018

24 October 1791 St Giles-on-the-Fields, London We have established that Andrew Bent was baptised in the church of St Giles-in-the-Fields, London on 24 October 1791 as the son of Andrew…