Edward Charles Close (Senior) (12 March 1790 – 7 May 1866) was a British soldier, engineer, New South Wales colonial magistrate, member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

, and early European settler in

Morpeth Morpeth may refer to: *Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia ** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales * Morpeth, Ontario, Canada * Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK ** Morpeth (UK ...

."Edward Charles Close – New South Wales Sketchbook: Sea Voyage, Sydney, Illawarra, Newcastle, Morpeth, c. 1817-1840"
in ''Manuscripts, Oral History and Pictures Catalogue'' (database), New South Wales Government, State Library accessed 28 May 2013. He was born at

Rangamati Rangamati (Bengali: রাঙ্গামাটি;) is the administrative headquarter and town of Rangamati Hill District in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The town is located at 22°37'60N 92°12'0E and has an altitude of . The distr ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(in what is now

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

) and was the only child of merchant Edward and Marianne Collinson, daughter of Michael Collinson. He accompanied his mother to England when she went there following his father's death. They settled with Marianne's brother

Charles Streynsham Collinson Charles Streynsham Collinson (1753–1831) was an English official of the East India Company who served as the resident of Beauleah. He later returned to England settling in Sproughton near Ipswich. He was High Sheriff of Suffolk from 11 Februar ...

on his estate at the Chantry,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. Enlisted in the army in 1808, he served in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

as lieutenant in the 48th Regiment. He arrived in New South Wales on the 3rd of August 1817 on the Matilda. Close was transferred to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

where he was acting engineer from 1821 to 1822. On 27 September 1821 at St John's Church, Parramatta he married Sophia Sussannah Palmer, daughter of

John Palmer John Palmer may refer to: People Politicians * John Palmer (fl. 1377–1394), English politician * Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet (1735–1817), British politician * John Palmer (1785–1840), U.S. congressman from New York * John Palmer (1842–19 ...

. In 1822 he resigned from the army to settle in a 2,560 acre property in

. In 1829 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, ho0wever he found membership of the council to be a burden, both in expense and time and he resigned with effect from 1838. Close's son,

Edward Charles Close junior Edward Charles Close (21 January 1825 – 19 February 1887) was an Australian politician. He was born at Morpeth to Sophia Susannah Palmer and Edward Charles Close, who was a British soldier and member of the New South Wales Legislative Cou ...

, was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Close, Edward Charles Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 1790 births 1866 deaths 19th-century Australian politicians People from Maitland, New South Wales