John Montgomery was chief clerk and accountant for the Sydney Gazette office. A column published in the Sydney Gazette on the 6 August 1838 (2), announcing a subscription for his pregnant widow, describes Montgomery as 'a young man of high respectability of character [who] arrived in the Colony little more than twelve months [ago] as a free emigrant, and the situation in which he was at the time of his death was the first and the only one he had held in the Colony. During the whole twelve months he held the situation of principal clerk in this office we invariably found him a trustworthy, diligent, and indefatigable servant to his employer, and his place is one which we will, probably, find it difficult to fill.'
Montgomery's death notice was published in the Gazette on 4 September 1838 (3).