William and Jane Isbister

William Isbister was born in Glasgow, Scotland, arriving in Adelaide in the 1850s. By 1858 he and his partner, Duncan Brown, had established themselves as shipping agents form an office in Gilbert Place. They were part owners of the Admella, a vessel sailing regularly between Adelaide and Melbourne (hence its name) which was wrecked on Carpenter Rocks off Cape Northumberland in 1859 with 89 of those on board being drowned.

In 1864 William married Jane Linklater, daughter of fellow Scot, the merchant James Linklater of North Adelaide. The Isbisters had two sons - William a solicitor, and James a doctor. William Isbister died in 1920, and Jane died in 1931.

Alice Hambidge was born at Kensington in 1869. With her sisters, Helen and Milly, she produced a prodigious amount of artwork between the 1890s and 1930s. Alice's speciality was portraiture, and her works included miniatures for hundreds of Adelaide's society families.

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