James Dickson (1813 – 28 April 1863) was an Australian politician and 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 ...

from 1857 until his death.

Early life

Dickson was born in Scotland and was the son of a farmer. After an elementary education he trained as a tailor and came to Australia as an assisted immigrant in 1838. On arrival he established a successful general store in

Maitland Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...

and also accrued significant pastoral interests.

New South Wales Parliament

Dickson was a member of the first

which was convened after the establishment of responsible self-government in 1856. He was elected for the two-member seat of Northumberland Boroughs at a by-election in November 1857 which was caused by the death of the incumbent member, Bob Nichols. Dickson retained the seat, unopposed, at the 1858 election, but the electorate was abolished prior to the

next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

election in 1859. At that election, Dickson was an unsuccessful candidate at

East Maitland East Maitland is a suburb in the City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It is on the New England Highway and it has two railway stations, Victoria Street (opened in 1857 with the Newcastle- Maitland line) and East Maitland (opened initi ...

, and Patrick's Plains. He re-entered parliament as the member for East Maitland following the 1859 by-election caused by the resignation of the incumbent Joseph Chambers who had accepted a position as Crown Prosecutor in the Western Districts of New South Wales. Dickson retained this seat at the 1860 election, until his death in 1863. He did not attain ministerial or parliamentary office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, James 1813 births 1863 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 19th-century Australian politicians