Hon. Joseph Docker (1802 – 9 December 1884), was an Australian grazier, early amateur photographer and politician. He was a 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 ...

from 1856 to 1861, and again from 1863 until his death in1884. Docker held a number of cabinet positions and other senior executive roles during his 26 years in the New South Wales upper house. Docker was the second son of wool merchant Robert Docker, of London, of the Dockers of

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

(now part of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

). His mother was Eliza, née Perry. Born in 1802, Docker left school at 13 and was apprenticed to Dr Thomas Docker of Dover, whose daughter Agnes he married in 1830. He became a

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

in the service of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. Docker emigrated to the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

(Australia) in 1835 and established himself as a grazier, with 10,000 acres in the Upper

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

, at "Thornthwaite", near

Scone A scone is a baked good, usually made of either wheat or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component of th ...

. Agnes died in childbirth, and Docker briefly returned to England. He was married in April 1839 to Matilda, daughter of Major Thomas Brougham of the

(

Presidency armies The presidency armies were the armies of the three presidencies of the East India Company's rule in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India, composed primarily of Indian sepoys. The presidency armies were named after the presidenc ...

), from

Penrith, Cumberland Penrith (, , ) is a market town and civil parish in the county of Cumbria, England, about south of Carlisle. It is less than outside the Lake District National Park, in between the Rivers Petteril and Eamont and just north of the River Lo ...

. They returned to Australia together, and subsequently had a daughter and six sons, including

Ernest Brougham Docker Ernest Brougham Docker (1 April 1842 – 12 August 1923) was an Australian judge, cricketer and photographer. Biography Docker was the oldest son of New South Wales pastoralist and politician Joseph Docker, and his second wife Matilda n� ...

. Docker was appointed a member of the Legislative Council (upper house) in New South Wales on 20 May 1856 after being defeated as a candidate for 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 ...

seat of Phillip, Brisbane and Bligh. He was a member of the Council until 10 May 1861, and again from 16 December 1863 until 11 December 1884 (his death). He was twice

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a Ministry (government department), ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having ...

: from January 1866 to September 1868 in the second ministry of James Martin, and from December 1870 to May 1872 in Martin's third Ministry. As Representative (leader) of the government in the upper house on the first occasion, he introduced and carried through

Henry Parkes Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and longest non-consecutive Premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. He has ...

's Public School Bill in 1866, which required teachers to have training and created a funding mechanism. A council of education was formed, and as a result of the bill many new schools were established all over the colony. He was briefly Colonial Secretary in the last month of Martin's second ministry. Docker was the Representative of the Government in the Legislative Council on four occasions, in the first and second Martin ministries and in the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

and fourth Robertson ministries. Docker was also Minister of Justice and Public Instruction in the third Robertson ministry and

Vice-President of the Executive Council The Vice-President of the Executive Council is the minister in the Government of Australia who acts as the presiding officer of meetings of the Federal Executive Council when the Governor-General is absent. The Vice-President of the Executive ...

in the fourth Robertson ministry. He was twice

Chairman of Committees of the New South Wales Legislative Council The President of the New South Wales Legislative Council is the presiding officer of the upper house of the Parliament of New South Wales, the Legislative Council. The presiding officer of the lower house is the speaker of the Legislative Asse ...

, in 1873-1875 and again in 1880-1884. In 1864 Docker was one of the three Australian commissioners tasked by the

Government of New Zealand , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = , ...

with choosing a new location for the capital for that country. Together with Francis Murphy (Victoria) and

Ronald Campbell Gunn Ronald Campbell Gunn, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, (4 April 1808 – 13 March 1881) was a South African-born Australian Botany, botanist and politician. Early life Gunn was born at Cape Town, Cape Colony, (now South Africa), the son of W ...

(Tasmania), he traveled to New Zealand to inspect various possible locations, and the commissioners recommended for the capital to move from

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. He died on 9 December 1884 (aged 81–82) in Sydney.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Docker, Joseph Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 1802 births 1884 deaths 19th-century Australian politicians Chairman of Committees of the New South Wales Legislative Council