William J. Bartlett owned the Goulburn Brewery from 1874 to 1921. He was a merchant seaman , engaged as bosun on the Dunbar for its fateful last voyage to Sydney; fortunately a friend offered him a job as first mate on another ship, and since it paid better he took that instead.

William J. Bartlett married Isabella Maria Atkinson Taylor. Despite the magnificent sound of her name, everybody called her Dolly. Dolly was a theosophist and believed in reincarnation. She was quite certain she would 'come back' - as the Brewery horse!

The connection of the Brewery with theosophy goes much further back. William & Emily Bradley's daughter Esther married Edward Maitland who was a founder of the theosophical movement in Australia. He succeeded Captain Hovell as Commissioner of Crown Lands in the Goulburn district. Esther was dead within a year of the marriage and Edward Maitland returned to England, immersing himself in the theosophical society there. He acted as the scribe for the seer Anna Kingston, publishing her prophecies. He was a novelist of some acclaim at the time and was quite the darling of the Victorian establishment.