Item 42 - Correspondence : Richard Dry

George Washington Walker (1800-1859), Quaker, shopkeeper and humanitarian, was born on 19 March 1800 in London, the twenty-first child of John Walker (1726-1821) by his second wife, Elizabeth, née Ridley. Because of the death of his mother and the absence of his aged father engaged in the saddle trade in Paris, he was brought up by his grandmother in Newcastle. He was educated by a Wesleyan schoolmaster near Barnard Castle, and apprenticed in 1814 to a linen draper. Impressed by the probity and wisdom of his Quaker employers and James Backhouse of York, a leading Quaker minister, he left the Unitarian persuasion of his family in 1827 and became a member of the Society of Friends. The next year he formed the first Temperance Society in Newcastle.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-george-washington-2764

Sir Richard Dry (1815-1869), landowner and politician, was born on 20 September 1815 at Elphin Farm near Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, the elder son of Richard Dry and his wife Anne, née Maughan. He was educated at Kirklands, the boys' school conducted by Rev. John Mackersey at Campbell Town. At 21 he made a voyage to Mauritius and British Indian ports, and on his return devoted himself to farming the fine Quamby property left him by his father in 1843. He had been placed on the Commission of the Peace in 1837 by Sir John Franklin, who was impressed with Dry's personality and steady character. On 8 February 1844, Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Eardley-Wilmot nominated him a non-official member of the Legislative Council. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dry-sir-richard-1999