Gunning & District Historical Society

Tense negotiations underway in Dublin between Irish author Margaret Smith and GDHS’s then secretary, Rosemary Spiller, about arrangements for launching her book in Australia.  Gunning and District Historical Society is delighted to assist Anchor Books to launch a new book which sheds light on a little known aspect of Australian and local Gunning history.  Samuel Clayton – Forger, Freemason, Freeman by Irish author Margaret Smith tells the story of an Irish engraver, transported for forgery, and his son Dr Benjamin Clayton.  Both prospered in Australia and played prominent roles in early colonial life.  Their stories deserve to be known. The Claytons, father and son, were successful graziers in the Gunning and Tumut districts.  More than that, their property Baltinglass very near to Gunning village, on the junction of Meadow Creek and the Lachlan River, was the very first successful major wine producer in what is now the Canberra District...

Gunning Uniting Church today, Warrataw Street, Gunning. Photo by  Mattinbgn  /  CC BY 3.0 Guest article by Garry Norman Smith At three o’clock on Wednesday 16 January 1849, Dr Benjamin Clayton JP laid the foundation stone for the “New Wesleyan Chapel” in Gunning. A sermon was preached on the occasion by the Reverend W.B. Boyce, General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Missions in Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. From the Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser , 13 January 1849, via Trove. Gunning Uniting Church, Built by Coates & Sons , Parramatta. Photo by Garry Smith. Despite the official opening of the chapel taking place in July 1849, the gazetting of the land grant to the church did not appear until December 1849; the bureaucracy lagged well behind. The Colonial Secretary’s Office in Sydney announced that land had been granted at the intersection of Warrataw and Cullavin Streets, Gunning for a Wesleyan Chapel, a Wesleyan School a...