William Wentworth
William Charles Wentworth ( born August 13, 1790, at sea, † March 20, 1872 in Dorset, England) was a writer, explorer, journalist, lawyer and politician; than the latter one of the leaders of the young colony of New South Wales in Australia.
He was the first Australian-born politician who gained a reputation outside of Australia, as he called for the self-administration of the colonies in Australia. Together with William Lawson and Gregory Blaxland, he was considered the first white man to the Blue Mountains overcame.
Life
Wentworth's parents were Catherine Crowley and D' Arcy Wentworth, who as a doctor on Norfolk Iceland - was detached - a penal colony in the Tasman Sea. They met probably only on the Neptune the Second Fleet know who left England on 19 January 1790. The ship reached Sydney in June, 1790, where the couple sailed around the Surprize. When the Surprize Norfolk reached Iceland in August, William Wentworth was born in the meantime at sea. His mother Catherine Crowley was a prisoner in her teens.
The family moved in 1796 to Sydney in order then to Parramatta, where Wentworth's father bought land and became wealthy. Wentworth's mother died in 1800. Wentworth had two brothers, and probably at least seven half-siblings.
1803 Wentworth was sent to England to school and returned in 1810 returned to Sydney, where he received his first position with Governor Lachlan Macquarie and assigned land on the Nepean River got. 1813 Wentworth took together with Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson on behalf of Macquarie part in an expedition which found a route through the Blue Mountains, paving the way to the inland of New South Wales to colonize released ( Blaxland expedition ). As a reward for this service he received and assigned to the other members of the expedition another country.
In 1816, he traveled back to England to study at Cambridge University law. He also published the first book of an Australian: A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen 's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America. In this book, he advocates an elected assembly, which should govern New South Wales, for trials by jury and an immigration of free citizens instead of convicts from.
His study in 1822 concluded successfully Wentworth, was admitted to court and in 1824 he returned to Sydney.
When his father D'Arcy Wentworth died in 1827, he inherited the fortune and became one of the wealthiest residents of the colony. He rose in the east of Sydney, the property with Vaucluse House. Since his parents had never married and his mother had been a prisoner, Wentworth was never a member of the " recognized " ruling class. Embittered by this rejection, he became the leader of emancipist party, which sought equal rights and status for ex- prisoners and their descendants.
As a dedicated and gifted speaker and biting journalist Wentworth was one of the leading political figures in the colony of the 1820s and 1830s. He now publicly called for a representative parliament, the abolition of convict deportations to Australia, trials by jury and a free press.
He was a bitter opponent of Governor Ralph Darling and his entourage, especially the wealthy landowner John Macarthur. Macarthur's opposition to Wentworth was both personally and politically: Macarthur ended a relationship between his daughter Elisabeth and Wentworth because he did not allow his daughter to marry someone who had a convict to the parent. Wentworth was subsequently Vice - President of the Australian Patriotic Association and founded the newspaper The Australian ( not the same, founded in 1964 The Australian ), the first newspaper in the colony, which was privately owned, to spread his positions.
After 1840, the political landscape of New South Wales changed: The deportation of prisoners were abolished and there was an elected Legislative Parliament. The dominant theme was the disempowerment of large landowners. Wentworth took the side of the landowners against the democratic party, who wanted to divide the lands and awarded to small farmers. In 1843 he was elected to Parliament and became the leader of the conservative party and reconciled with Macarthur and his followers. 1853 Wentworth was sitting in front of a committee that drafted a constitution for New South Wales, which provided a complete self-government and independence from Britain.
Wentworth came back in 1856 from his position and moved to England, where he died; He was buried in Sydney. His family members were influential in the company of Sydney; William Wentworth IV was, for example, the Liberal Party of Australia Member of the Parliament of Australia in 1949 and 1977.
Family
1829 Wentworth married Sarah Cox ( 1805-1880 ), with whom he had seven daughters and three sons:
- Thomasine Wentworth (1825-1913)
- William Charles Wentworth (1827-1859)
- Fanny Wentworth (1829-1893)
- FitzWilliam Wentworth (1833-1915) father of William Charles Wentworth III (1871-1949) father of William Charles Wentworth IV
- Mungo Wentworth MacCallum
Before his marriage he became the father of a child with Jamima Eagar, abandoned by Edward Eagar wife.
Aftereffect
The towns of Wentworth and Wentworth Falls and the constituency Division of Wentworth, the Wentworthwasserfälle in the Blue Mountains and Wentworth Avenue in Canberra are named after him.
1963 was Australia Post is issuing a stamp with Wentworth, Blaxland and Lawson, reminiscent of the crossing of the Blue Mountains. and another in 1974 on the anniversary of the first newspaper publication.
Publications
- A Statistical Account of the British Settlements in Australasia (1819 )
- Journal of an expedition, across the Blue Mountains, 11 May- 6 June 1813. 1813