Frederick Michael Stokes was working at the Sydney Gazette with Alfred Ward Stephens and William McGarvie when he, with McGarvie and Stephens, imported a printing press in 1831. The three formed a partnership to establish a general printing business in Sydney, New South Wales, and began publishing the Sydney Herald (later the Sydney Morning Herald). McGarvie soon left the partnership but Stokes and Stephens continued their association with the Herald, as proprietors and editors both individually and together, until 1842 when Stokes sold the paper to Charles Kemp and John Fairfax.
