Robert Thomas was a Welsh newspaper proprietor, printer and early settler of South Australia who was born on a farm 'Rhantregynwen', at Llanymynech, Powys, Wales. In 1836, Thomas migrated to the new colony with his wife Mary and family on the, arriving at Holdfast Bay on 8 November. He printed Governor Hindmarsh'sproclamation of the new colony. On 27 and 28 March 1837 he purchased from the South Australian Company, at auction, numerous plots of land as surveyed by Colonel Light in the new capital: Town Acres Nos. 41 on the north side of Rundle Street; 51, 56, and 58 on the north side of Hindley Street; 82 on the south side of Rundle Street; and in North Adelaide Nos. 729 on Brougham Place, and 891 and 893 on Burton Street. Town Acre No. 56 would be the site of his first printery, where the first issue of the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register was printed on 3 June 1837. By 1838, the Register was a weekly newspaper. He also published the weekly Adelaide Chronicle and South Australian Literary Record. Thomas also printed copies of the South Australian Church Hymn Book for the Rev. Charles Howard, the Royal South Australian Almanac and from 1839, the Port Lincoln Herald and South Australian Commercial Advertiser. The Register had a fierce policy of independence and this resulted in conflict with Governor George Gawler, who it often criticised for his economic policies. Gawler was particularly attacked in September 1840 over his ordering of the execution of two Ngarrindjeri men as a reprisal for the killing and dismembering of the survivors of the Maria shipwreck on the Coorong the previous July. As a result, the Government ceased to use the services of Robert Thomas & Co. from 11 November 1840 as Government printer, especially of the Government Gazette – a loss to the company of £1650 a year. After an unsuccessful trip to London to protest the loss of business from the Government, he returned to Adelaide, where he continued to be involved in further printing and publishing. He died on 1 July 1860 at his home in Hindley Street.
Family
His wife Mary Thomas, née Harris was a poet and diarist, who published The Diary of Mary Thomas, which is considered a valuable history of her voyage on the Africaine and the early days of the colony. Children aboard Africaine were:
Frances Amelia Thomas married solicitor and artist John Michael Skipper on 28 December 1840. He married again, to Mary Thomas on 28 April 1856.
William Kyffin Thomas, became a proprietor of the South Australian Register.
Mary Thomas married her sister's widower John Michael Skipper on 28 April 1856
Helen Thomas married Swiss pianist Alfredo Placido "Alfred" Mantegani on 25 June 1855.
Another son, Robert George Thomas, arrived with G. S. Kingston, aboard Cygnet in 1836, worked as a surveyor, then in 1846 returned to England. He was back in Adelaide in 1861 and served for a time as later Government Architect before reverting to private practice.
