Date of Birth: 01/01/1810
Place of Birth: Bodmin, Cornwall, England
Date of Death: 01/12/1869
Place of Death: Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, Australia
Parliamentary Service
| Member of the NSW Legislative Council |
22 May 1856 |
16 Mar 1859 |
2 years 9 months 23 days |
First (Quinquennial) Appointments under the Constitution Act. Date of Writ of Summons 13 May 1856. |
| Member of the NSW Legislative Council |
19 Sep 1851 |
29 Feb 1856 |
4 years 5 months 11 days |
An Elective Member of the first Legislative Council 1843 - 1856 for the County of Bathurst. |
Qualifications, occupations and interests
Lawyer (Attorney-at-Law). Bligh became a solicitor in England and practised in Bodmin. After arriving in Australia, he took a shipment of cattle to Port Nicholson (Wellington) New Zealand. He visited Tasmania in 1841. He began his practice as a solicitor in New South Wales in November 1841. In 1843, he was a collector of quit rents for the police district of Carcoar, Bathurst and Wellington, New South Wales. He was in a business partnership with Willoughby Daring who died in 1849. In 1851- 1852 poor health forced him to give up his practice. He purchased land at Cook's River, later selling it to buy 400 acres of bushland at Willoughby, Northbridge and Castlecrag.
Membership of other Parliaments & Offices Held
Local Government Activity
First Chairman of Willoughby Council from 1865 until 1867.
Personal
Son of John Martyn Bligh, a conveyancer and steward to a number of large estates, and Mary Edyreun, nee Hocking or Hocken. Arrived in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1839 but soon moved to Sydney. Unmarried. Undertook European travel in 1861.
Additional Information
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales: ML Mss 3410
