[BAROSSA VALLEY] The manuscript diary of William Spettigue Lillecrapp, September 1863-April 1864.

A$3,300 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Large octavo journal (210 x 165 mm), original half green morocco over grey cloth (boards marked and sun-faded; corners worn; some loss to leather on spine); verso of front free-endpaper with ownership signature and date W. S. Lillecrapp, 23 September, 1863 ; manuscript in ink on unruled paper, pp. [157 Lillecrapp s diary, September 1863-April 1864], [2 blank], [25 Lillecrapp s later accounting records for 1867-68, with sundry notes such as commenced cheese-making 4th September 1868 ]; all entries are in Lillecrapp s scrawly but decipherable hand, although several pages (including the first) are inexplicably cross-written; both hinges are split, but the diary remains complete; very occasional light foxing, otherwise clean throughout. The original 1860s diary of William Spettigue Lillecrapp (1840-1920), a farmer at Gumeracha, on the southwestern edge of the Barossa Valley. The diarist was the son of William Lillecrapp (1815-1881), a pioneer settler in the Gumeracha and Eden Valley districts, who had arrived in South Australia from England in 1837. The diary has been published in its entirety, with a commentary, by its previous owner, Paul Depasquale, in William Spettigue Lillecrapp s Diary, September 1863 April 1864 / edited with notes and a response by Paul Depasquale. (Oaklands Park, SA : Pioneer Books, 2008). As Depasquale observes (ibid., p.11): Woven into the admittedly crudely made tapestry of the Diary are the household names of the Gumeracha of the 1860s: the Randells,

• Binding: Hardcover

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