John MacGregor (1828 – 27 March 1884) was a politician in colonial

Victoria (Australia) Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

, and Minister of Mines. MacGregor was the son of John Macgregor, and was born in the island of Skye, Scotland. He arrived in Victoria in 1840, was admitted a solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1855, and practised in

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 ...

, in what was latterly the firm of MacGregor, Ramsay, & Brahe. MacGregor unsuccessfully contested East Bourke in 1856 and 1861, but after the retirement of Wilson Gray in September 1862 MacGregor was returned for Rodney, for which district he sat in the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

till March 1874, when he retired from Parliament. MacGregor joined the first

James McCulloch Sir James McCulloch, (18 March 1819 – 31 January 1893), British colonial politician, was the fifth Premier of Victoria. Early life McCulloch was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the son of George McCulloch, a quarry master a ...

Government, and was Minister of Mines from July 1866 to May 1868. On the defeat of the

John Alexander MacPherson John Alexander MacPherson (15 October 1833 – 17 February 1894), Australian colonial politician, was the 7th Premier of Victoria. MacPherson was born at his father's property of ''Springbank'' on the Limestone Plains, in New South Wales ( ...

Ministry in April 1870 MacGregor was asked by the Governor to form a Government, but he recommended that Sir James McCulloch should be sent for. MacGregor brought in, and for the first time carried, a Payment of Members Bill. He had long retired from public life when he died on 27 March 1884 at his home in Gipps street,

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

, Victoria. He built up a substantial collection of books during his lifetime. His library contained around 10,000 volumes and when it was sold in 1884 it was described as the, “largest private library which has yet been brought to the hammer in this colony.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacGregor, John Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 1828 births 1884 deaths Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia People from the Isle of Skye 19th-century Australian politicians Australian book and manuscript collectors