Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/213

 to the British School at Liverpool. In 1840 he and his wife he married in this year were chosen by the Borough Road school committee, acting on behalf of the government of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), to conduct the Model School of Hobart Town, where they arrived on 10 October 1841.

Bonwick, resigning this appointment in 1843, opened a school on his own account. After eight years in Van Diemen's Land, he removed to Adelaide in 1849 and started a school at North Adelaide. From Adelaide he joined in the rush to the Victorian goldfields in February 1852, and returning to Melbourne published the 'Life of Gold Digger,' and started in October 1852 the 'Gold Diggers' Magazine,' which proved a failure. For a time he was an unsuccessful land agent.

From July 1856 to the end of 1860 he was an efficient inspector of denominational schools in the colony of Victoria. Partial paralysis due to a coach accident on one of his tours of inspection led to his resignation. He then took up lecturing, and opened a school at St. Kilda, near Melbourne, which he carried on until his permanent return to England in 1884. Then he was soon appointed archivist to the government of New South Wales, and until midsummer 1902 he was actively employed in collecting material for the official history of the colony. Two volumes were completed and issued (1889-94). After 1894 a change of plan was effected and the documents were printed in extenso under the title of 'Historical Records of New South Wales.' Seven volumes appeared between 1893 and 1901, bringing the record down to the opening years of Governor Macquarie's term of office. Bonwick died at Norwood on 6 February 1906, and was buried in the Crystal Palace district cemetery, Beckenham, Kent. He married on 17 April 1840 Esther, daughter of Barnabas Beddow, a baptist minister of Exeter, and had three sons and two daughters.

Bonwick was a voluminous writer on many subjects, but his contributions to early Australian history are alone of permanent value. The most noteworthy of these are 'The Last of the Tasmanians' (1870); 'Daily Life of the Tasmanians' (1870); 'Curious Facts of Old Colonial Days' (1870); 'First Twenty Years of Australia' (1882); 'Port Phillip Settlement' (1883); 'Romance of the Wool Trade' (1887); and 'Early Struggles of the Australian Press' (1890). 'An Octogenarian's Reminiscences' (1902) gives a complete list of his works.

 BOOTHBY, GUY NEWELL (1867–1905), novelist, born at GlenosmondGlen Osmond [sic], Adelaide, South Australia, on 13 Oct. 1867, was eldest of three sons of Thomas Wilde Boothby, member of the South Australian house of assembly, by his wife Mary Agnes, daughter of Edward Hodding of Odstock, Salisbury, Wiltshire. His grandfather, Benjamin Boothby (1803–1868), a native of Doncaster, emigrated with his family to South Australia in 1853 on being appointed second judge of the supreme court of South Australia, and was removed from office in 1867 by the South Australian parliament owing to his objections to the Real Property (Torrens) Act. His uncle, Josiah Boothby, C.M.G., born at Nottingham, was permanent under secretary for the government of South Australia from 1868 to 1880.

About 1874 Boothby was sent to England, and received his education at Salisbury. In 1883 he returned to South Australia, and in 1890 became private secretary to the mayor of Adelaide. During this period he devoted himself to writing plays without success. In October 1888 he produced a melodrama at the Albert Hall, Adelaide, entitled 'Falsely Accused,' and in August 1891 at the Theatre Royal 'The Jonquille,' a piece founded upon incidents connected with the French revolution. Of a roving disposition, he made in 1891-2 a journey across Australia from north to south; and in 1894 published 'On the Wallaby,' in which he described in a lively style his travelling experiences. In the same year he settled in England, first at Champion Hill and afterwards near Bournemouth, where he devoted himself to novel-writing and occupied his leisure in collecting live fish and breeding horses, cattle, and prize dogs. He died unexpectedly of influenza at his house in Boscombe on 26 Feb. 1905, and was buried in Bournemouth cemetery.

The many stories which Boothby wrote at an exceptionally rapid rate during his last ten years were crowded with sensation, showed an eye for a dramatic situation, and enjoyed a wide vogue, but he had small faculty for characterisation or literary style. He produced in all fifty-five volumes. He was at his best in his earlier