Item 44 - Correspondence : Walker to J.S. Hampton

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

Between 1841 and 1845, Hampton was surgeon-superintendent on a series of convict ships to Van Diemen's Land: the Mexborough, the Constant and the Sir George Seymour. He was appointed Comptroller-General of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land in May 1846. He arrived at the colony on 27 October 1846. During his time in the office, allegations of inhumanity and corruption were frequently published in the press. For more information see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hampton