Samuel Smale Craig

Samuel Smale Craig (1802-1864), and his wife Mary were settlers to York, Western Australia who arrived in 1850 and then built the Castle Hotel, which was then run by the Craig family for 137 years.

Craig was born on the farm at Nether-Garrel, Kirkmichael, Scotland, prior to 10 October 1802, He was the second son of John Craig and his second wife Henrietta Bell.^[1]: 1

Little is known of his early life. In 1842, at age 40, he married Mary Anne Morton.^[1]: 6

According to family legend, Craig invented a means for igniting and extinguishing street lights from the ground, thus obviating the need for ladders, however there is no evidence of any patent having been lodged.^[1]: 6

By whatever means, he amassed enough money to bring his family to the Swan River Colony, arriving on the Sophia on 27 July 1850. After arrival, his middle name was changed from the name of his village priest, Smail, to Smale.^[1]: 6

The Colony's first introduction to the Craig family was a letter from the Craigs to the “Independent Journal” dated 27 August 1850 complaining about the conduct of Mr Parr, Surgeon Superintendent on the ship Sophia.^[2] The Craigs must have come with some money and status as they donated 2 guineas for the erection of an independent chapel in Fremantle.^[3]

On 25 November 1851,^[4] Craig purchased the licence for and leased the York Hotel from John Henry Monger Snr.^[1]: 10 A claim was made against Craig by a man called Byrnes for return of a horse sold to Craig for £30 (“when Byrnes was sober”) to pay for liquor bills on 13 January 1852.^[5] Following this, Craig was shortly after reported as racing a horse called Tom O’Shanter.^[6]

On 8 May 1852, Craig was granted a liquor licence for a hotel called the Agricultural and Commercial Hotel.^[a][7] Craig announced improvements to the Agricultural and Commercial Hotel in August and September 1852.^[8] Then in August 1853, Monger advertised that the York Hotel was available for lease.^[9]

Craig constructed the Castle Hotel on land he purchased from Monger^[b] and continued to run the hotel until his death. His hotel was very successful.^[c]

On 26 August 1854, Samuel Craig was summoned to the York Police Court on information supplied by Joseph Kenworthy for charging “a person named Redmile” for “two bottles of grog” sold from his new premises when he did not have a license for the new premises. The Magistrate had refused to transfer the licence from one premises to the other. Redmile refused to give evidence and the Magistrate threatened to fine Redmile £20 because he would not support the information supplied by Kenworthy. Craig said he was giving the “grog” away to friends. He was fined £10.^[11]

Craig provided bricks for the construction of the York courthouse in 1859.^[12]

In September 1866, a conditional pardon man was stabbed by a ticket-of-leave holder. This was reported in the Perth Gazette as having taken place at “Craig’s public house”. An indignant Samuel Craig wrote a letter to the paper saying that “such an atrocity has never been committed on my premises since I have kept the Castle Hotel, extending over 14 years”. The newspaper published a note to the effect that the “case of stabbing occurred at Albert’s York Hotel on the day in question”.^[13]

Craig died at the Castle Hotel on 12 December 1869.^[14]

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