Hugh Glass (1817–1871) was an Australian
pastoralist, landowner and
land speculator
In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.)
Many s ...
, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in the 1850s and 1860s.
[
] His wealth was built on pastoral holdings and land deals and he exercised enormous influence over the colony's parliament.
Biography
Glass was born in
Portaferry
Portaferry () is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland, at the southern end of the Ards Peninsula, near the Narrows at the entrance to Strangford Lough. It is home to the Exploris aquarium and is well known for the annual Gala Week Flo ...
,
County Down,
to Thomas Glass, a merchant,
and his wife Rachel Pollock.
In 1840, Glass migrated to Victoria and by 1845 he was established as a station agent and merchant.
Glass speculated in buying and selling rural landholdings.
In 1853 he married Lucinda Nash, whose father was a Victorian squatter and former captain from the military.
Together they had ten children.
Between 1854-1856 he built Flemington House in Melbourne,
which his main residence until his death there in 1871.
In 1862 he was considered the richest man in Victoria,
but his business empire collapsed in the late 1860s, partly due to droughts.
In 1869, Glass was found guilty of corrupt activities, such as using dummies, and was sentenced to jail.
He was saved, however, by Sir
William Foster Stawell
Sir William Foster Stawell KCMG (27 June 181512 March 1889) was a British colonial statesman and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. Stawell was the first Attorney-General of Victoria, serving from 1851 to 1856 as an app ...
, the
Chief justice of the
Supreme Court of Victoria, who argued that the
Legislative assembly did not have the right to do so.
[ - via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.] Glass was thus set free; this result was received well by the public, but was the cause of "grave consternation in parliament".
After the deterioration of his health due to cancer of the liver,
Glass died on 15 May 1871 at age 55, in
Flemington, Victoria,
[
] from an overdose of
chloral hydrate
Chloral hydrate is a geminal diol with the formula . It is a colorless solid. It has limited use as a sedative and hypnotic pharmaceutical drug. It is also a useful laboratory chemical reagent and precursor. It is derived from chloral (trichl ...
.
He was survived by his wife and eight of his children,
and was buried at the
Melbourne General Cemetery
The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North.
The cemetery is notably the resting place of four Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other n ...
.
Legacy
Glass Creek
Glass Creek is a waterway flowing through the inner-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It is a minor tributary of the Yarra River and now largely runs through a series of underground drains.
Etymology
The creek was named after Hugh Glass, a land s ...
, a minor tributary of the
Yarra River
The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia.
The lower s ...
that flows through the inner-eastern suburbs of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, is named after him.
Notes
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Hugh (pastoralist)
Australian pastoralists
1817 births
1871 deaths
19th-century Australian businesspeople
Australian landowners
19th-century landowners