???????? 12 - Letter from Bicheno, Colonial Secretary's office

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

James Ebenezer Bicheno (1785-1851), author and colonial secretary, was born on 25 January 1785 at Newbury, Berkshire, England, the son of Rev. James Bicheno and Ann, his wife. His father (d.1831) was a Baptist minister, schoolmaster and author of numerous books and pamphlets on biblical prophecy, Nonconformity, papal tyranny and restoration of the Jews. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bicheno-james-ebenezer-1777