Sir Saul Samuel, 1st Baronet (2 November 182029 August 1900) was an Australian colonial merchant, member of parliament, pastoralist, and prominent Jew. Samuel achieved many breakthroughs for Jews in the colonial community of
New South Wales
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, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
including the first Jew to become a magistrate, the first Jew elected to parliament, the first Jew to become a minister of the Crown.
Early years and background
Samuel was born in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on 2 November 1820, the posthumous son of Sampson Samuel and his wife Lydia, née Lyons. Samuel arrived in Australia on 25 August 1832 aboard ''The Brothers'' with his mother to meet with Samuel's brother, Lewis, and their uncle,
Samuel Lyons
Samuel Lyons (1791 – 3 August 1851) was a pardoned convict from London who rose to prominence in the Australian colony of New South Wales as a landowner and businessman. A tailor by trade, Lyons was sentenced to transportation for life in 1814 ...
, was had arrived in colonial New South Wales a few years earlier. Educated at schools run by
W. T Cape, Samuel was initially employed at his uncles' accounting house, before he and his brother formed their own mercantile firm.
After purchasing of land at
Bathurst, he abandoned pastoral interests following the
1851 gold rush and business interests became his main focus.
He married Henrietta Matilda Goldsmith-Levien on 16 December 1857 and had two daughters and two sons. He married Sarah Louisa Isaacs on 31 October 1877 (in
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 ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
)
and had one son.
Political career
![Saul Samuel by Samuel Calvert - Illustrated Australian News (1874)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Saul_Samuel_by_Samuel_Calvert_-_Illustrated_Australian_News_%281874%29.jpg)
In 1854, Samuel became an elective Member of the first
Legislative Council of New South Wales
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 ...
, representing the
Counties of Roxburgh and Wellington between 1854 and 1856.
Elected to the first responsible government, Samuel became a member of the
Legislative Assembly representing the Counties of Roxburgh and Wellington from 1854 until 1856. Re-elected to the Assembly in June 1859 and then again in November 1859, Samuel served as member for
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
until 1860. Samuel became member for
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 ...
in 1862, serving until 1869, and then again as member for Orange, serving between 1869 until 1872, before briefly serving as member for
East Sydney during 1872. In 1872, Samuel was appointed a Life Member of Legislative Council, where he sat until he retirement from parliamentary life in 1880.
Treasurer and Postmaster General
Samuel served as
Colonial Treasurer
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
three times during his parliamentary career including in the
Forster ministry
The Forster ministry was the fifth ministry of the New South Wales, Colony of New South Wales, and was led by William Forster (Australian politician), William Forster. Forster was elected in the first free elections for the New South Wales Legi ...
between 1859 and 1860, the
fourth Cowper ministry between 1865 and 1866, and the
second Robertson ministry between 1868 and 1870. Samuel resigned as Treasurer in the Cowper ministry after his budget proposals for trade licences and increased duties on tea and sugar had been defeated.
In 1870, at the Intercolonial Conference in Melbourne, Samuel proposed intercolonial free trade to settle the border customs dispute. He hoped to abolish ''
ad valorem
An ''ad valorem'' tax (Latin for "according to value") is a tax whose amount is based on the value of a transaction or of property. It is typically imposed at the time of a transaction, as in the case of a sales tax or value-added tax (VAT). An ...
'' duties but his plans for a tax on incomes of over £200 were bitterly contested and led to the downfall of the government in December 1870.
Between 1872 and 1880, Samuel served as
Postmaster-General
A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsible ...
on three occasions under Premier,
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 ...
, including the
first
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First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
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* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
(1872–1875),
second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
(1877), and
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 ...
(1878–1883) ministries. During this period, Samuel established the
General Post Office and negotiated a subsidized mail service from England to Australia via USA.
Mining involvement
In 1875, he reopened a copper mine at
Coombing Park
Coombing Park is a farming property situated in western New South Wales just off the Mid-Western Highway about 5 km west of Carcoar, 260 km west of Sydney and 54 km south-west of Bathurst. The property is of considerable note bec ...
near
Carcoar
Carcoar is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2016, the town had a population of 200 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west of Sydney and 52 km south-wes ...
—in partnership with
Lewis Lloyd—and in 1876, a copper smelter was built close to it.
Career after politics
After politics, Samuel pursued his business interests including Chairman of
Australian Mutual Provident Society
AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products (through AMP Banking) including home loans and savings accounts. Its headquarters is in Syd ...
and of Pacific Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Between 1880 and 1897, Samuel was the sixth
Agent-General for New South Wales in London and was a director of Mercantile Bank of Sydney.
An energetic, shrewd and efficient representative, he helped negotiate government loans and by 1885 claimed that he had raised £30 million. He fostered assisted immigration, negotiated with the Peninsular and Oriental and the Orient shipping companies for weekly mail services to the colony and in 1885 about the
New South Wales Contingent
The New South Wales Contingent served in Sudan with British forces as part of the Suakin Expedition in 1885. Consisting of an infantry battalion, an artillery battery, and a small field ambulance detachment, it departed from Sydney on 3 March ...
to the Sudan. He was a commissioner for New South Wales at the 1883
Amsterdam Exhibition and represented the colony at the 1887 Colonial Conference in London. In 1891 he also represented Queensland at the Postal Convention in Vienna.
He was active in Jewish affairs, including the Board of Management of York Street Synagogue. On 26 January 1875 he laid the foundation stone for the
Great Synagogue in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, and was later its president.
Samuel was invested as a
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1874, and was elevated as a
Knight Commander
Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders.
The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mili ...
(KCMG) in 1882. He was made a
Privy Councillor in 1884, was invested of a
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Companion may refer to:
Relationships Currently
* Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance
* A domestic partner, akin to a spouse
* Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach
* Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...
in 1886 in recognition of his services in connection with the
Colonial and Indian Exhibition
The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was held in South Kensington in London with the objective to (in the words of the then Prince of Wales) "stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of union now existing in every portion of her Majes ...
,
and was created baronet in 1886.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Saul
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Australian Companions of the Order of the Bath
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Australian recipients of a British baronetcy
1820 births
1900 deaths
Jewish Australian politicians
Treasurers of New South Wales
English emigrants to colonial Australia
19th-century Australian politicians
Agents-General for New South Wales
Australian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom