Francis Cotton (5 May 1857 – 28 November 1942) also known as Frank Cotton, was an Australian politician. Born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to grocer Richard Cotton and Esther Ann Payne, he was educated privately and worked on a cattle station in

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

before arriving in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1875. He married Evangeline Mary Geake Lake on 1 January 1883 at

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

; they had six children. After working as a shearer, farmer and drover, he moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

to become a journalist in 1889 and was editor of the ''Democrat'', a

single tax A single tax is a system of taxation based mainly or exclusively on one tax, typically chosen for its special properties, often being a tax on land value. The idea of a single tax on land values was proposed independently by John Locke and Bar ...

paper, in 1891; he had founded the Forbes tax reform group in 1887 and joined the

Single Tax League The Single Tax League was a Georgist Australian political party that flourished throughout the 1920s and 1930s based on support for single tax. Based upon the ideas of Henry George, who argued that all taxes should be abolished, save for a single ...

in 1889. In 1890 he represented

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

on the Trades and Labor Council, and in 1891 he was elected to 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 ...

as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for Newtown, serving until 1894. On 8 June 1891, he supported the formation of the

Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales ] The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, was founded in 1891 and campaigned for women's right to vote in New South Wales. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Origins Mary Windeyer and Rose Scott, among others, ...

, saying that "equality was the soul of equity." In April 1892 he chaired a debate between Eliza Ashton and

Rose Scott Rose Scott (8 October 1847 – 20 April 1925) was an Australian women's rights activist who advocated for women's suffrage and universal suffrage in New South Wales at the turn-of-the twentieth century. She founded the Women's Political Educatio ...

on Ashton's controversial views on marriage laws. From 1895 to 1901 he was member for Newtown-Camperdown, this time for the

Free Trade Party The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states, was an Australian political party, formally organised in 1887 in New South Wales, ...

. Cotton died in Sydney in 1942.

References

1857 births 1942 deaths Free Trade Party politicians Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Politicians from Adelaide Politicians from Sydney Australian farmers Australian journalists Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales {{Australia-FreeTrade-politician-stub