Memorandum book kept by George Kershaw in England and New South Wales, 1840-1855

Component identifier:

File 1

Content Summary:

The memoranda are written in an 1836 memoranda book issued by the London stationers and publishers J. F. Harwood. Kershaw appears to have been a compulsive recorder of his daily life. In addition to using the volume for two skeletal diaries in 1841 and 1849, he recorded his employment, rents, purchases, cash payments, lectures attended, and the births, deaths and marriages of family members. The various memoranda are not in a single chronological sequence and it would seem that Kershaw initially left many pages blank and filled them in as time passed.

Items of interest include: Yearly receipt of cash since arriving in the colony, 1842-1845; diary kept on voyage of the Columbine from Liverpool to Sydney, 1841; Gold purchased at Wanambura (?) Creek, 1851; records of travelling since joining the NSW Police (Braidwood, Goulburn, Reesdale and Jinglemoney), 1850; Diary of journey from Braidwood to Sydney, 1849; record of purchase of hay and barley, 1849-1851; Low Hill Cemetery, 1841; record of plastering work carried out in Sydney, 1843-1846; Inventory of property received when sworn in as a constable at Braidwood, 1849; rent paid since arrival in the Colony, 1844-1845; cash payments and goods purchases, 1843.

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