Samuel Edward Roberts (5 November 1824 – 23 September 1905) was a printer and publisher in Adelaide.

History

Roberts was born in the Old Fleet Market (now Farringdon Street) London, a son of Samuel Edward Roberts (c. 1790 – 20 December 1869). He was educated at the Grammar School at

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

, Kent, and the

City of London School , established = , closed = , type = Public school Boys' independent day school , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Alan Bird , chair_label = Chair of Governors , chair = Ian Seaton , founder = John Carpenter , special ...

, then served a seven-year apprenticeship in London as a

compositor Compositor may refer to: * Compositor (typesetting), a person or machine which arranged movable type for printing ** Paige Compositor, a device developed to replace manual compositors, which was a commercial failure * Compositing software, used i ...

. He emigrated to South Australia aboard ''Symmetry'', arriving in Adelaide in November 1848 after a long voyage of 147 days. His intention was to take up sheepfarming, but circumstances dictated otherwise, and he found employment as a printer. In February 1852 he joined the rush to the Victorian goldfields, where he was moderately successful and returned to Adelaide late that same year. He returned to his trade, working as a journeyman printer until June 1855, when he went into business on his own account on Currie Street, roughly opposite Leigh Street, later moved to

Gawler Place Gawler Place is a single-lane road in the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs north to south from North Terrace to Wakefield Street, parallel to and approximately midway between King William and Pulteney Streets. ...

; it was at this time he published ''The South Australian Horticulturist and Magazine of Agriculture, Botany and Natural History'', edited by J. F. Wood FHS. He sold up to J. T. Shawyer in March 1856, and took up farming on the River Light, near Kapunda, supplementing his income by carting copper ore with a bullock team from Burra to Gawler until 1862, when the Copper Company began employing their own teams. Roberts entered the Government service in 1863, and remained there till 1865, when he took over G. Dehane's stationery business at King William Street, opposite

White's Rooms White's Rooms, later known as Adelaide Assembly Room, was a privately-owned function centre which opened in 1856 on King William Street, Adelaide, South Australia. It became Garner's Theatre in 1880, then passed through several hands, being know ...

. From January 1867 he accepted the job of printing the weekly ''Pasquin''; from June he acted also as business manager for its founder and editor

E. R. Mitford Eustace Reveley Mitford (16 November 1810 – 24 October 1869) was a satirical writer, best known as "Pasquin", prominent in the early days of the Colony of South Australia. History Mitford was born at St Pancras, London, the third of four sons o ...

. The paper was only two years old when Mitford died, and did not long outlast him; its last issue was published on New Year's Eve 1870. In mid-1872 he moved his business to 64 Hindley Street. Later that year he was proven insolvent and the whole of his printing plant was liquidated by auction. In the Northern Territory boom year 1873 to 1874 he worked as a sharebroker, before briefly returning to the Government Printing Office. He was appointed local director of the Palmerston Goldmining Company, but on arriving in Darwin found the company was in liquidation, and after tying up some loose ends returned to Adelaide. He worked briefly in the offices of ''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tech ...

'' and '' The Advertiser'', then in 1880 again entered the Government Printing Office, where he remained until he retired late in 1904. He died three days after passing into a coma from which he never regained consciousness.

Family

Samuel Edward Roberts married Ruth Wylde (c. 1833 – 4 May 1901) on 18 December 1850. Their family included: *Charles Edward Roberts (24 September 1851 – 23 November 1932) Ellen "Nelly" Cleary in August 1892 at Charters Towers *Amy Roberts (5 September 1853 – ) never married *Percy Arthur Roberts (21 July 1857 – ) married Elizabeth Anne Ninnes Woolcock in 1895 worked for Yalumba *Leonard Roberts (1 September 1859 – ) *Annie Eliza Roberts (6 October 1861 – ) married William Irven Dawkins on 30 June 1883 *Catherine Maud Roberts (3 June 1864 – ) married (William) Henry Brownett in 1884 *Alice Angelica Roberts (9 June 1866 – ) married Thomas James Dinneny in 1885 *Frederick Walter Roberts (24 July 1868 – 20 November 1942) married Ada Mary Lane in 1883, moved to Fremantle *Jessie Edith Roberts (19 April 1871 – ) married Alfred Dawkins on 3 June 1891 *Clara Blanche Roberts (23 June 1874 – ) never married *George Adolphus Roberts (15 September 1876 – ) married Adelphine Vassey on 20 December 1905, moved to Mildura They had a home in Devon street, Goodwood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Samuel 1824 births 1905 deaths Australian printers Australian magazine publishers (people)