Diary of William Henry Mutlow

Abstract

According to Armidale's historian John Ferry, William Henry Mutlow lived 'a life of quiet despair' during the four decades he spent in the town. Ferry seems to have meant that Mutlow was a fairly typical member of the community who just got on with life, and with no outstanding achievements to his name. He was, apparently, unware of Mutlow's diary which is published now for the first time. As a record of a migrant's voyage half way around the world, the diary is a remarkably vivid record written with humour and humanity. If not outstanding, it is surely not far short of that, and it provides insights into the character of a man who would have been quite well known to most Armidale residents in the second half of the nineteenth century.