Samuel Wilson (Portsmouth MP)

"a squatter"
Wilson as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, January 1885

Sir Samuel Wilson (7 February 1832 – 11 June 1895) was an Irish-born Australian pastoralist and politician, and later a British Member of Parliament.

Funerary monument, Kensal Green Cemetery, London

Wilson was born in Ballycloughan, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1832.

Australian entrepreneur

Coursing was his preferred sport and he was President of the Ballarat Coursing Club from at least 1875 to 1882.[1][2][3][4][5] He awarded £20 for the winner of the 1875 Ercildoune Cup and in 1876 it was run on his 11,000-hectare (26,000-acre) Ercildoun[a] estate.[7]

Purchased in 1873 for a rumoured A£250,000,[8] Wilson's achievements at Ercildoun included extensive additions to the homestead, the development of the garden to include the long entry avenue of alternating Himalayan cedar and Monterey pines, a walled garden, and the establishment of a deer park. He was also involved in the development of one of the first trout hatcheries in Colonial Victoria, and the continued production of fine merino wool.[9][10]

He was elected a member of the Victorian Legislative Council (1875-1881) and Legislative Assembly (1861-64) for the Western Province. He was knighted in 1875.

He died on 11 June 1895, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Lady Wilson stayed on at Grosvenor Square until 1907.[11]

Marriage and issue

In 1861 he married a daughter of the Hon William Campbell. William Campbell is credited with being the first person to find gold in Clunes in 1850 and so spark the Victoria gold rush. They had four sons and five daughters: all four sons and two of the daughters survived him.

His eldest son, Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson, married Lady Sarah Isabella Churchill, sister of Lord Randolph Churchill, he fell in The First World War on 6 November 1914 and is buried at Zillebeke Churchyard, West Flanders, Belgium.

Another son Wilfred Wilson was mortally wounded in an attack on Boer positions at Hartebeestfontein during the Second Boer War.

His daughter Maud Margaret Wilson married Warner Hastings, 15th Earl of Huntingdon in 1892.

His son Clarence lived at Grove Place, Nursling, Southampton, Hampshire

Notes

  1. ↑ Ercildoun was originally spelt without the added ‘e’. Wilson added on the ‘e’ as he wanted an even number of letters on the entrance gates.[6] For the purposes of this article, the original spelling is adopted. Variances exist in the spelling of the homestead's name between various sources, and sometimes, within the source itself.

References

  1. ↑ "Leader (Melbourne)". TROVE National Library of Australia. 12 June 1875. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  2. ↑ "Leader (Melbourne)". TROVE National Library of Australia. 13 May 1876. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  3. ↑ "The Age ( Melbourne)". TROVE National Library of Australia. 23 December 1878. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  4. ↑ "Leader (Melbourne)". Leader. 28 December 1878. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Ballarat Courier". TROVE National Library of Canberra. 5 May 1882. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  6. ↑ Dever, John and Christine (n.d.). "Historical record". Ercildoune Homestead. Retrieved 23 June 2026.
  7. ↑ "The Herald". Trove. National Library of Australia. 1 March 1876. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  8. ↑ "Ercildoune". The Leader (Melbourne). Victoria, Australia. 17 April 1875. p. 7. Retrieved 14 March 2020 – via Trove.
  9. ↑ "Ercildoun, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0313, Heritage Overlay HO23". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 23 June 2026.
  10. ↑ "The Learmonths of Ercildoune". The Argus. 5 May 1934. p. 4. Retrieved 23 June 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ "Grosvenor Square: Individual Houses built before 1926 Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings)". British History Online. LCC 1980. Retrieved 5 January 2025.

Bibliography

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