Henry Capper

{{main|South Australian Record}}

In 1837 Capper founded the South Australian Record, a periodical published in London devoted to news from the colony of South Australia for the benefit of intending migrants and investors. A regular feature was publication of letters received by people in Britain from friends and relations who had settled in South Australia.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

The Record was at first published monthly{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49778332 |title=Majority of the Colony of South Australia |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=XXII |issue=3509 |location=South Australia |date=5 January 1858 |access-date=7 August 2019 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} A nice potted history of the early colony. (price 5d.) by Capper and John Gliddon from an office at 37 Great Marlborough street, Westminster, from 8 November 1837.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57467721 |title=Pages from Yesterday |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=LXXXIX |issue=25,927 |location=South Australia |date=1 February 1924 |access-date=6 August 2019 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}

A paragraph in the Record of (perhaps) 8 May 1839 contained a candid appraisal of one of the South Australian Company's representatives in the colony, which drew the ire of Robert Torrens, who recommended to the Governor that he publicly disown the statement as an "error" on Capper's part.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245655820 |title=To the Editor of the Adelaide Guardian |newspaper=South Australian Record And Australasian Chronicle |issue=38 |location=South Australia |date=14 March 1840 |access-date=7 August 2019 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Rather than submit to this insult, Capper resigned from his position with the Colonization Office, but continued publishing the Record.

The South Australian Record became briefly South Australian Record and Australasian Chronicle in 1840, became the South Australian Record and Australasian and South African Chronicle then in March 1841 the Australasian Record which ran to either late 1843 or early 1844.

Capper assembled two compendia of advice and useful information for intending emigrants, aimed at two distinct classes of prospective emigrants.

• South Australia First edition November 1837{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245931960 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Record |issue=3 |location=South Australia |date=27 November 1837 |access-date=7 August 2019 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} but greatly expanded in second edition May 1838, entitled South Australia: Containing Hints to Emigrants, Proceedings of the South Australian Company, a Variety of Useful and Authentic Information, a Map of the Eastern Coast of Gulf St. Vincent and a Plan of Adelaide{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245932042 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Record |issue=8 |location=South Australia |date=9 May 1838 |access-date=7 August 2019 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} This book, which went to at least four editions, is available as a recent (2018) imprint of Sagwan Press.
• How to Get to South Australia, being information for Labouring Emigrants respecting the above Colony. First published in October 1839,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245932412 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Record |issue=25 |location=South Australia |date=9 October 1839 |access-date=7 August 2019 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} this publication went through at least four editions, the third being freely available to read [https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-91595755/view?partId=nla.obj-91595801 here].

In 1840 Simpkin and Marshall produced a booklet in which large sections were copied from How to Get to South Australia.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245655968 |title=Literary Piracy Exposed |newspaper=South Australian Record And Australasian Chronicle |issue=42 |location=South Australia |date=11 April 1840 |access-date=6 August 2019 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Capper was the emigration clerk to the Colonization Commissioners, South Australian Colonization Office at Adelphi, London.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

Capper was also a partner in the shipping firm of Capper and (Abraham) Gole, who in October 1840 were appointed agents by the Colonization Commissioners for the sale of land in South Australia.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245933431 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Record And Australasian And South African Chronicle |volume=3 |issue=76 |location=South Australia |date=5 December 1840 |access-date=8 August 2019 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 1845 the firm of Capper and Gole was declared bankrupt. There is no reason to believe Capper ever visited Australasia.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

In 1839 Capper established the Colonial Reading Rooms. These combined the functions of a bookseller with that of a shipping agent, and provided access to emigrant guides, pamphlets, journals and colonial papers. Initially located at 11 Park Street Westminster, close to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission (CLEC) offices at 9 Park Street. By 1851, the reading rooms had moved to 6 Charing Cross, in the bookselling area of London. Capper continued to operate his reading rooms until at least 1856.{{cite book |last1=Haines |first1=Robin F. |title=Emigration and the labouring poor : Australian recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831-60 |date=1997 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0333660498 |pages=178–179}}

Despite the obvious similarity in titles of their respective books, there appears to be no family or other connection between Henry Capper and Orientalist John Capper F.R.A.S. (c. 1814 – 1898), author of The Emigrant's Guide to Australia, which is mostly concerned the goldfields of New South Wales and Victoria.{{Citation | author1=Capper, John | title=The emigrant's guide to Australia | date=1853 | publisher=George Philip & Son, Liverpool | edition= 2nd | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/12452913 | access-date=7 August 2019 }} Its chapter on South Australia is particularly trenchant.

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Category:History of South Australia

Category:19th-century British newspaper founders

Category:English newspaper editors

Category:Year of birth missing

Category:Year of death missing