Bill of purchase for the Wesleyan City Mission Chapel building, Sussex Street, Sydney, 7 April 1859.

Foolscap folio bifolium (330 mm), with the printed letterhead ‘City Mart, 362, George Street, Sydney. By Bowden and Threlkeld, at auction.’; the first side with entries in manuscript, dated 7 April 1859, recording the sale ‘on account of Messrs. Spier, Callaghan and others’ of ‘A Building in Sussex St. used as a Chapel, purchased by Mr. Caldwell for £710’, and noting Caldwell’s deposit of £177 10s; the third side with further entries dated 23 June 1859 recording the payment of the outstanding balance; the fourth side with some rough accounting calculations; three original (light) horizontal folds, clean and complete.

Irish-born John Caldwell (1817-1884) emigrated to New South Wales in 1841, where he initially worked as a draper before opening his own business in Pitt Street. He served as a Sydney City Councillor, 1859-1861. In 1860 he was elected MLA for East Sydney, a position he held until his bankruptcy in 1866 forced his resignation. Caldwell was a committed Wesleyan Methodist and a leading member of the temperance movement in Sydney. The City Mission Chapel in Sussex Street – evidently purchased by Caldwell on behalf of the Wesleyans – became an important venue for temperance meetings and lectures. Caldwell later moved to Goulburn and served briefly as an alderman there before his death in 1884.

Lancelot Edward Threlkeld (1827-1882) was the son and namesake of Congregationalist minister, missionary and Aboriginal linguist Lancelot Edward Threlkeld (1788-1859). His business partner, auctioneer Thomas Wheaton Bowden (1806-1878), was a leading member of the Macquarie Street Wesleyan Church and would later serve as Mayor of Parramatta.