engraver and convict, was sentenced to death for highway robbery at the Middlesex Assizes, London, on 20 February 1811, a sentence later commuted to fourteen years’ transportation. He arrived at Sydney in the Guildford on 18 January 1812 and was possibly assigned to the publisher Absalom West, for whom he engraved – with Philip Slaeger – views after Richard Browne , John Eyre and John Lewin for two sets of Views of New South Wales published by West in 1813 and 1814.
In 1814 Preston was sent to the penal settlement of Newcastle for a crime unspecified in the records. From mid 1816 Newcastle was under the command of Major James Wallis , for whom Preston engraved twelve views of NSW. When subsequently published in Wallis’ Historical Account of the Colony of New South Wales (London 1821) they were stated to have been taken from Wallis’ originals that had used 'common sheet copper employed in coppering the bottoms of ships’ to make the plates. The prints were advertised for sale in Sydney from 9 January 1819, and on 15 January Preston received an absolute pardon. Later that year he was charged with theft, but was acquitted although his co-accused was found guilty.
Preston’s first name is sometimes cited as William, but Walter appears to be correct. There was a contemporary mistake with his surname too; it appeared as 'Presston’ on both series of West’s Views . No original drawings or engravings are known but Preston was a competent reproductive engraver and his skill contributed greatly to the artistic merit of West’s and Wallis’ published views.
- Writers:
- Neville, Richard
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
