Sir Robert Wisdom, (31 January 1830 – 16 March 1888) was a politician in colonial

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and

Attorney General of New South Wales The Attorney General of New South Wales, in formal contexts also Attorney-General or Attorney General for New South Wales and usually known simply as the Attorney General, is a minister in the Government of New South Wales who has responsibil ...

Early life and education

Wisdom was born in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England, and arrived in Australia in 1834 with his parents, moving to Morpeth in the Hunter Valley. He was educated at Maitland and at the Sydney College. In November 1858 he was appointed a clerk of petty sessions at Stoney Creek, before being appointed a sub-commissioner of gold fields, and a magistrate.

Political career

In 1859 he resigned his office as gold commissioner in order to stand as a candidate for the new district of Goldfields West, where he was elected at

Sofala Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. It was founded by Somali merchants. This name wa ...

on a show of hands, and was easily re-elected at the 1860 election. On 26 October 1861 he was admitted to the Colonial Bar. He was chairman of committees from 1861 until 1864, a position that carried a salary of £500, but declined ministerial appointments in the third ministry of Charles Cowper and a proposed ministry of William Forster. He switched to the district of The Lower Hunter, winning the seat at the 1864 election and holding it at the 1869 election. He was also elected to Goldfields North, but resigned to represent The Lower Hunter. He was defeated in 1872, becoming a Crown Prosecutor in 1873. Parliament was dissolved in November 1874 and Wisdom agreed to be a candidate for the district of Morpeth, winning the seat in 1874. He was appointed a member of the Council of Education 1878. In March 1875 Wisdom was nominated to be the

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is a title commonly held by Speaker (politics), presiding officers of parliamentary bodies styled Legislative Assembly, legislative assemblies. The office is most widely used in state and territorial legislatures ...

but was defeated by a single vote. After declining numerous offers of ministerial positions, he agreed to be

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

in the Third ministry of

Sir 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 be ...

from August 1879 to January 1883. He personally prosecuted the Watabadgery bushrangers,

Captain Moonlite Andrew George Scott (5 July 1842 – 20 January 1880), also known as Captain Moonlite, though also referred to as Alexander Charles Scott and Captain Moonlight, was an Irish-born New Zealand immigrant to the Colony of Victoria, a bushranger the ...

and Thomas Rogan, which drew praise from the Bulletin for his forensic skills. In 1885 he was involved in an altercation with David Buchanan, initially exchanging insults before Wisdom struck Buchanan in the face. He was made a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1886, and decided not to contest the 1887 election. He was appointed to the Legislative Council in February 1887, shortly before leaving for England with Sir Patrick Jennings as one of the delegates of New South Wales, to the

first Colonial Conference The 1887 Colonial Conference met in London in 1887 on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. It was organised at the behest of the Imperial Federation League in hopes of creating closer ties between the colonies and the United Kingdom. ...

. Returning to New South Wales as Sir Robert, he did not take his seat in the Legislative Council before he died on .

Honours

Wisdom was created a

Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

(KCMG) in April 1887.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wisdom, Robert 1830 births 1888 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George 19th-century Australian politicians Attorneys General of the Colony of New South Wales English emigrants to colonial Australia Australian King's Counsel