Proprietors and principal editorial officers of the S. A. Register. From left to right: W.W.R. Whitridge (on editorial staff); Joseph Fisher (proprietor); William Kyffin Thomas; Anthony Forster; E.W. Andrews; J.H. Barrow (editorial staff).

Robert Thomas established the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register [newspaper] , and later the Register newspaper. Mr and Mrs Thomas were accompanied by their children Frances Amelia (Skipper) 1818-1855, Robert George, 1820-1885, William Kyffin, 1821 -1878, Mary (Skipper), 1823-1881 and Helen (Mantegani), 1825-1921. Another child, Alfred, died in infancy.

The State Library also holds a selection of extracts from the diary of Mary Thomas (1823-1881), the daughter of Mary and Robert Thomas (PRG 1160/6), who later became the second wife of colonial artist, J.M. Skipper. Mary often refers to her parents' prinitng business in the diary (p.4);

Mar. 24, 1840. There are at this time the following persons employed in the office of the South Australian Register:- My brother William, Mr. William (senior clerk), Daniel Higgins, Thomas Higgins, Mr. Bonnar, Mr. Halliday, John Foreman, Little George Foreman, Mr. Brock (press-man), Mr. Connelly (press-man), and a clerk under Mr. Williams, William Hillier, Mr. Bennet, William Hay, Henry Curran, Astley Cooper (boy), Lindsay Cooper (boy), and Abraham Brookes (bill sticker).

Duncan, Beth Mary Thomas : founding mother : the life and times of a South Australian pioneer Kent Town, S. Aust. : Wakefield Press, 2007

Pike, Douglas. Paradise of dissent : South Australia 1829-1857 London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1957

Pitt, G.H. The press in South Australia, 1836-1850 Adelaide, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1946.

Thomas, Evan Kyffin. The diary and letters of Mary Thomas (1836-1866) : being a record of the early days of South Australia Adelaide, S. Aust.: Gillingham Printers, 1983

State Library of South Australia, General Information Factsheets Online, Newspapers of South Australia

Australian dictionary of biography online edition search for staff members by name

SA Memory Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 Diary of Mary Thomas

SA Memory, Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register [newspaper]

SA Memory, Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 Register