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Member Details

Mr William WESTGARTH (1815 - 1889)

Member Photo
Date of Birth: 15/06/1815
Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland
Date of Death: 28/10/1889
Place of Death: South Kensington, London, England
Parliamentary Service
Position Start End Period Notes
Member of the NSW Legislative Council 01 Nov 1850 30 Jun 1851 8 months An Elective Member of the first Legislative Council 1843 - 1856 for the City of Melbourne
Political Party Activity
Community Activity
Qualifications, occupations and interests
Merchant; financier; politician; historian. The Westgarth family were a landed family from Durham in England. Educated at high schools at leith and Edinburgh and at Dr Bryce's Academy at Newcastle upon Tyne. After finishing school he worked for the mercantile firm of G. Young & Co. of Leith, which had Australian interests. He left leith on 11 July 1840 and arrived in Melbourne on 13 December 1840. He became a general import merchant in partnership with Alfred Ross in 1845. He left Australia for London in 1857 where he established a sharebroking firm. He was involved in the struggle for constitutional reform; and fought vainly for the secret ballot and a democratic new Victorian Legislative Council.
Military Service
Honours Received
Membership of other Parliaments & Offices Held
Member of the first Legislative Council of Victoria, 1851 - 1853.
Local Government Activity
Personal
Son of John Westgarth, surveyor-general of customs for Scotland, and his wife Christine Thomson. He married Ellison Mafie in April 1853 (while on a return visit to Britain) and they had 3 daughters.
Additional Information
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6