John Banks Shepherdson, S.M.,
BORN at East Heslerton, near Scarborough, in the East Riding of York, on May 22, 1809. Educated under the Rev. Thomas Farrow, of West Hestlerton, and the Rev. Jabez Banks, Vicar of Bempton. After a voyage to Jamaica in 1824, and a stay there of three months, at the time of the sanguinary insurrection of the negro slaves, he returned to England, and was engaged in tuition up to the time of his leaving for South Australia in May 1837. In 1836 the South Australian School Society, of which the late George Fife Angas was chairman, was established in London. While in the Training School of the British and Foreign School Society, Mr. Shepherdson was engaged as "Director of Schools in South Australia," for the purpose of organising educational establishments and training teachers; and as it was the original intention of the Society that these should be conducted on the system of Baron Fellenberg's labour schools in Switzerland, he was instructed to proceed thither for the purpose of making himself acquainted with the principles upon which they were based. It was, however, afterwards decided that he should instead visit and inspect the schools at Lindfield, Sussex, established and conducted at the sole expense of the late William Allen, Esq., F.R.S., of London and Lindfield. He spent some time at this establishment, where the boys were (in addition to the elements of a sound education) taught farming, gardening, tailoring, shoemaking, printing, &c, under competent masters. From the press here was issued a weekly serial called the "Lindfield Reporter," a creditable publication, set up by the boys. Mr. Shepherdson arrived with his family at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, in the ship "Hartley," on October 14, 1837; his fellow passengers being the late Rev. T. Q. Stow, Mr. William Giles, afterwards General Manager of the South Australian Company, Mr. W. B. Randell, afterwards stock manager of the Company at
