AustLit

Entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd was born on 21 August 1801 at Penninghame, Wigtown, Scotland, second surviving son of Edward Boyd, a London merchant of Merton Hall, Wigtonshire, Scotland, and his wife Janet, daughter of Benjamin Yule of Wheatfield, Midlothian. He came to Australia in 1842 and started various enterprises but eventually was not successful and sailed from Port Jackson to San Francisco in 1849. He disappeared during a trip to the Solomons in 1851.

According to Hobart's Colonial Times (5 July 1842), in an item reproduced from the Launceston Examiner, Boyd was the 'sole proprietor, editor, and compositor' of the Wanderer's Gazette. The Gazette was published on board the sailing vessel Wanderer once a fortnight during that ship's voyage from London to Port Phillip. The Times notes: 'The typographical appearance is equal, if not superior, to any journal published in these colonies'. (p.3)