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
| 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 |
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.
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
