Background
He was born in England but educated in Germany.
He was born in England but educated in Germany.
On his return to England he was articled to Bartlett & Beddome, a London firm of solicitors. In 1833 he purchased a 3000-acre estate in Abbeycwmhir, Radnorshire but now in Powys, Wales and commissioned the building of an Elizabethan-style house on the site of an earlier house overlooking the ruins of Cwmhir Abbey. He landscaped the estate at great expense, including the creation of a lake to power the village sawmill.
In 1836 published anonymously A Descriptive Catalogue of the Prints of Rembrandt.
In 1838 he ran into financial difficulty and decided to emigrate to Australia. In 1841 he was appointed clerk of the Court of Appeals by Governor (Sir) George Grey.
He was elected to the Municipal Corporation of Adelaide in 1840 and designed the official seal. He was elected an Alderman the following year and the second Mayor in 1842.
He gave lectures on painting and engraving and published several poems (The Feast of Belshazzar, The Lonely Manitoba of the Ocean, and Boyuca.
Or the Fountain of Youth). He died in Kensington, South Australia in 1863.
He sailed in the Duke of Roxburgh and arrived in Adelaide in July 1838 where he soon built an extensive and highly respectable practice as a member of the firm of Smart & Wilson.