Members’ biographical register

William Paterson

House

MLA

Party

Forrest Party

Date first elected

3 December 1890

Year Retired/Resigned

1895

Electorate(s)

Murray

Parliamentary Service

Service

Electorates

MLC Murray and Williams 30 January 1889–21 October 1890
MLA Murray 3 December 1890–February 1895 (resigned)

Private Member's Bills

Personal Information

Birth date

4 June 1847

Place of birth

Pinjarra, Western Australia

Death date

11 March 1920

Cause of death

Place of death

Perth, Western Australia

Cemetery

Karrakatta Cemetery, Western Australia

Arrived in WA

Parents

Son of Nicol Robertson, shipwright merchant and farmer, and Jane Green (widow, nee Cormack)

Marriage and Family

Married 21 June 1871, Northam, WA to Susannah Sarah Chidlow (born 23 July 1849 and died 11 October 1943), daughter of William and Mary Woodward
Children: two sons and four daughters

Religion

Church of England

Education

Educated Fremantle, Bishop Hale’s School and privately at Birmingham, England (1862–1864)

Occupation

Farmer

Employment History

Worked for John Wellard, Serpentine farm
After death of his father 1872 with brother managed family property ‘Creaton’ at Pinjarra
1880–1883 partner in Murray Pastoral (Squatting) Company, West Kimberley with Yeeda station at mouth of Fitzroy River
For a short time in 1886 had a foundry in Perth then settled family on a farm at ‘Whitby Falls’, Jarrahdale

Local Government

Murray Road Board 1875–1895 Buckland Hill Road Board from 1901

Principal Honours

Background/Membership

Returned to WA 1864
Member Pinjarra Mounted Volunteers
Sold Whitby Falls property in 1896 and moved to Cottesloe Beach (Mosman Park) and then to South Perth in 1917
Chairman Land Board and Railway Advisory Board
Trustee Perth Zoological Gardens
Member Murray District Board of Education 1874
Justice of the Peace 1887
Left Parliament in 1895 to become Founding Managing Trustee Agriculture Bank of WA 1895–1920

References

D Black and G Bolton, eds, Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia: volume one 1870-1930, Parliamentary History Project, Perth, WA, 2001, p.158.

Bibliography

Further Information

Battye, JS. The Cyclopedia of Western Australia vol I, p. 445.
The bicentennial dictionary of Western Australians pre 1829-1888, vol 3.
Kimberly WB. History of West Australia, p. 60.
Anne Porter, 'Paterson, William (1847–1920)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/paterson-william-7975/text13889, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 11 January 2016.
Porter, A. "William Paterson: the banker." Ed. L. Hunt, Westralian Portraits, p. 126–132.
West Australian, 12 March 1920.