His age on his marriage certificate is 24, if this is correct he was born in 1820. We have been unable to find how, when or where he came to Tasmania. There is no record of him as a prisoner.
John Gillatly is listed as the publican of the Sailors Return hotel in Port Adelaide in 1855 later known as the Lass O'Gowrie hotel; it was located in St Vincent Street, just across the road from the Presbyterian Church. He left the family home sometime in the 1860s and travelled to the eastern states with his eldest son. He had a farm at Moorwatha near Albury during the 1870s. It seems he may have left his farm after the death of his son John in 1882, for we know he worked with his son in law James Devine in Albury, both at the hotels and working a gold claim.
As to his death, we know he died before his wife because Charlotte is a widow according to her 1895 death certificate; perhaps he was the John Gillatly who died in 1887 at Singleton but there is no evidence to confirm that.