1. William Charles Wentworth was an Australian statesman, pastoralist, explorer, newspaper editor, lawyer, politician and author, who became one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in colonial New South Wales.
72 Facts About William Wentworth
1. 2.
William Wentworth was among the first colonists to articulate a nascent Australian identity.
3.
William Wentworth's views took a strong conservative turn in the 1840s, with Wentworth ending his previous support for free migration and expressing more restrictive views on voting rights, though he moderated the latter upon becoming President of the Legislative Council in 1861.
4.
William Wentworth consistently advocated for Australian nationhood both in Australia and Britain, and gained credit from Sir Henry Parkes for his advocacy of self-government; a key figure in Australian and New South Wales history, he is widely commemorated.
5.
Wentworth, Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson led the 1813 expedition across the Blue Mountains, the first successful British traversal of the region.
6.
William Wentworth's father acknowledged him as a legitimate son and he became a part of colonial society as a Wentworth family member.
7.
William Wentworth failed to gain entry into both the East India Company College and the Royal Military Academy and with his career prospects blunted, he returned to Sydney in 1810.
8.
William Wentworth rode his father's horse Gig to victory at Hyde Park in the first official horse races on Australian soil.
9.
In 1813 Wentworth, along with Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson, led the expedition which found a route across the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and opened up the grazing lands of inland New South Wales.
10.
William Wentworth kept a journal of the exploration which begins by describing the first day of the journey:.
11.
The town of William Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains commemorates his role in the expedition.
12.
In 1814 William Wentworth continued his adventurous lifestyle by joining a sandalwood-getting voyage to the South Pacific aboard the Cumberland under Captain Philip Goodenough.
13.
William Wentworth was nearly killed himself but with the aid of a pistol was able to flee to the Cumberland which sailed back to Sydney.
14.
William Wentworth returned to England in 1816 where he studied law at the Magdalene and Peterhouse colleges at Cambridge University.
15.
William Wentworth became a barrister and was admitted to the bar in 1822.
16.
In between studying and writing, William Wentworth travelled to Europe, spending much of his time in Paris.
17.
William Wentworth formulated an idea of establishing himself as a leader of a pastoral aristocracy in New South Wales and attempted to arrange his marriage with Elizabeth Macarthur, the daughter of the highly influential colonist John Macarthur.
18.
William Wentworth however failed in this attempt after arguing with the Macarthur patriarch over his convict heritage and a loan.
19.
William Wentworth became involved in literary pursuits, and by 1824 had published a number of notable works.
20.
William Wentworth had created a minor stir in 1816 by anonymously publishing a satirical verse attacking the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, George Molle.
21.
William Wentworth returned to Sydney in 1824, accompanied by fellow barrister Robert Wardell.
22.
William Wentworth became a director of the Bank of New South Wales in 1825.
23.
Since Dr Wardell and young Mr William Wentworth came out, and began to look after the government and the magistrates, there are not such dreadful doings as there used to be in former times.
24.
The death of Private Joseph Sudds in November 1826 inflamed William Wentworth, prompting him to demand Governor Darling's recall.
25.
William Wentworth declared Darling guilty of "murder, or at least a high misdemeanour" for Sudds' death.
26.
In 1827, Wentworth's father died and William inherited much of his highly valuable assets and property, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the colony and growing his land holdings to over 7,000 acres.
27.
William Wentworth purchased land at Vaucluse and built a mansion named Vaucluse House, which he moved into from Petersham.
28.
On 26 October 1829, William Wentworth married Sarah Cox, a convict-descended currency lass who had been represented by him in her successful 1825 breach of promise suit.
29.
William Wentworth expanded his property holdings, obtaining large pastoral grazing licenses throughout New South Wales.
30.
In 1839, William Wentworth led a consortium of Sydney speculators in an attempt to acquire large amounts of land in New Zealand from the resident Ngai Tahu people.
31.
On 29 May 1835, a meeting chaired by William Wentworth discussed Henry Lytton Bulwer's proposal for the formation of a colonial committee which would act through a Parliamentary Advocate, for which Bulwer nominated himself, to represent New South Wales.
32.
William Wentworth was elected to the Council in 1843 for Town of Sydney and soon became the leader of the conservative party, opposed to the liberal-minded members led by Charles Cowper.
33.
The political climate in New South Wales had changed and with William Wentworth becoming one of the wealthiest and most powerful landholders in the colony, his views became very conservative.
34.
William Wentworth positioned himself in the legislature as a vocal leader for the wealthy squatters and landowners.
35.
William Wentworth vehemently opposed any reforms that threatened the status of this "squattocracy" class and was one of the chief opponents of Governor Gipps in 1846 who wanted to fund free emigration to the colony through additional tariffs on squatting licences.
36.
William Wentworth pressed charges against absconders, who were punished with jail terms of hard labour.
37.
On one occasion, an interpreter for the Chinese workers verbally abused William Wentworth following the sentencing of one of the workers, and was charged by William Wentworth for absconding, and as such was sentenced to two months' imprisonment with hard labour.
38.
William Wentworth, who owned property in the Hunter Region, chaired a public meeting establishing the Hunter River Railway Company in April 1853.
39.
William Wentworth devised the railway line between Newcastle and Maitland, though it ran into financial trouble and was bought by the Government during construction.
40.
William Wentworth foreshadowed the line's extension to Scone up north and Sydney down south; the line ultimately developed into the Main North line connecting Sydney and Queensland.
41.
In 1820, William Wentworth noted that the outbreak of smallpox decimating Aboriginal communities around Sydney was retold in traditional songs.
42.
In 1827, William Wentworth was the defence counsel for Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe who was accused and acquitted of shooting dead an Aboriginal prisoner.
43.
William Wentworth was a strong supporter of universal and secular education.
44.
William Wentworth became a shareholder in the newly-opened Sydney College, a secular boys' school, in 1835.
45.
William Wentworth was involved in the establishment of state primary education, supporting in 1844 the introduction of "Lord Stanley's system of national education" used in Ireland, modified so that:.
46.
William Wentworth was key to the establishment of the University of Sydney, one of the first public, non-denominational and secular universities in the British Empire.
47.
William Wentworth argued that a state secular university was imperative for the growth of a society aspiring towards self-government, and that it would provide the opportunity for "the child of every class, to become great and useful in the destinies of his country".
48.
William Wentworth promoted access on the basis of merit rather than religious or social status.
49.
William Wentworth was among the first members of the university's senate.
50.
The 1972-built William Wentworth Building is named after him, and a statue of him stands in the Great Hall.
51.
Well before William Wentworth led the creation of the first self-governing New South Wales constitution, he advocated for representative government in the colony.
52.
In 1853 William Wentworth chaired a committee to draft a new constitution for New South Wales, which was to receive full responsible self-government from Britain.
53.
William Wentworth's draft provided for a powerful unelected Legislative Council and an elected Legislative Assembly with high property qualifications for voting and membership.
54.
William Wentworth suggested the establishment of a colonial peerage drawn from the landowning class.
55.
William Wentworth had proposed a "Congress" of the colonial legislatures in 1848.
56.
In 1857 while in London, William Wentworth produced a draft Bill proposing a confederation of the Australian colonies, with each colony given equal representation in an intercolonial assembly, a proposal subsequently endorsed by his General Association for the Australian Colonies.
57.
William Wentworth further proposed that a "permissive Act" be passed by Parliament allowing the colonies of Australia or any subset of them which was not a penal settlement to federate at will.
58.
William Wentworth, hoping to garner as broad support as possible, proposed a loose association of the colonies, which was criticised by Robert Lowe.
59.
William Wentworth retired from the Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1854 and sailed for England in March of that same year.
60.
William Wentworth refused an offer for a baronetcy, and was a member of the Conservative Party and the Conservative Club.
61.
William Wentworth was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.
62.
William Wentworth proposed an elected Legislative Council with high property qualifications and a proportional representation quota system.
63.
William Wentworth died on 20 March 1872 at Merley House, Wimborne, Dorset, in England.
64.
William Wentworth was given the colony's first state funeral on 6 May 1873, a day declared by the governor as a public holiday.
65.
The William Wentworth Mausoleum was after constructed over his grave, overseen by his wife Sarah.
66.
On 26 October 1829 at St Philip's Church, Sydney, William Wentworth married Sarah Cox.
67.
Carol Liston, biographer of Sarah William Wentworth, noted that her commissioning of various domestic duties was fundamental to the success of her husband and children.
68.
William Wentworth had supported her with money and a house on Macquarie Street after Edward abandoned her.
69.
William Wentworth financially supported his various half-brothers and sisters from his father and Anne Lawes, paying for their education.
70.
The William Wentworth Building, built in 1972 to accommodate the University of Sydney Union, is named after him.
71.
William Wentworth is recognised in the name of the Wentworth Memorial Church, built in honour of servicemen and women of the Second World War.
72.
The church and the adjacent William Wentworth Mausoleum fall within the former boundaries of William Wentworth's estate.