Andrew Bent

Andrew Bent (ca.1791 – 26 August 1851) was a printer, publisher and newspaper proprietor, active in Australia. He established the first successful newspaper in Tasmania, was the first Australian newspaperman to print a newspaper free from government control, and the first Australian printer to be imprisoned for libel.

Early life Andrew Bent was born in St Giles-in-the-Fields London, England and baptized in the parish church on 24 October 1791. By 1808 he and his two younger brothers were orphaned, the parish later providing apprenticeships for the younger boys as paupers. Bent was apprenticed at an early age to a printer although no indentures have been found. Once thought to have been apprenticed at the London Times, Newgate records show that in 1810 he was 'a boy' belonging to John Crowder, printer of the Public Ledger newspaper, in Warwick Square.

In 1810, Bent was caught one Sunday morning trying to sell stolen clothing, boots and shoes in the taproom of the Sugar Loaf public house. Bent and his accomplice Philip Street were charged with breaking and entering the shop-house to which these items were traced. Both were condemned to death but the sentences were later commuted to transportation for life. He also put the Gazette for 4 June 1824 to press without submitting the proofs for censorship, thus establishing the first free press in Australia some months before the commencement of Sydney's first independent newspaper, the Australian, and the removal of censorship from the Sydney Gazette. Arthur saw no place for a free press in a convict colony, and regarded the Gazette as government property although Bent claimed to have established it on his own initiative and at his own expense. Arthur asked his superior, Sir Thomas Brisbane, to pass a law requiring newspapers to be licensed. Bent sent his editor, Thomas, to Sydney to plead his case and the Governor in Chief decided in Bent's favour.

In June 1825 Bent was dismissed from his position as Government Printer. His successors, Dr. James Ross and George Terry Howe took over the gazette printing on 25 June, with a new newspaper which appropriated Bent's short title and continued its numbering. Bent regarded this action as piracy of his copyright. Two newspapers entitled the Hobart Town Gazette appeared each week until 19 August, when Bent changed his title to the Colonial Times, and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser.

Later life and career In 1832 Bent resumed business as a printer. For two years, commencing in July 1832, he printed the anti-Arthur newspaper the Colonist and Van Diemen's Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser for its trustee proprietors George Meredith and T. G. Gregson. He also assisted Gilbert Robertson, the proprietor and editor of its successor, the True Colonist, by printing it at his office while Robertson was in prison for libel in 1835. He was unsuccessful.

In 1838, Bent was again convicted of libel for several articles printed in Bent's News. 1824. The Van Diemen's Land Pocket Almanack. The first almanac in Tasmania. Continued annually by the Tasmanian Almanack, 1825-1830. 1827. The Van Diemen's Land Warriors, or Heroes of Cornwall by Pindar Juvenal. The first book of verse printed in Tasmania 1829. The Hermit in Van Diemen's Land. The first book of essays printed in Australia. A reprint of satirical sketches by 'Simon Stukely' (convict writer Henry Savery) which had appeared in the Colonial Times. Publication was suspended due to a libel action although some copies have survived.