William Edward Abbott (1 April 1844 – 14 November 1924) was an Australian politician. He was 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 ...

for

Upper Hunter The Upper Hunter Shire is a local government area in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was formed in May 2004 from the Scone Shire and parts of Murrurundi and Merriwa shires. The Mayor of the Upper Hunter Shir ...

as a

Protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

in 1890 and served as president of the Council of the Pastoralists' Union and the Pastoralists' Federal Council of Australia.

Biography

He was born at

Muswellbrook Muswellbrook ( ) is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney basin, bordering the New Englan ...

to squatter John Kingsmill Abbott and Frances Amanda Brady. He attended The King's School in

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

and

Sydney Grammar School (Praise be to God) , established = , type = Independent, day school , gender = Boys , religious_affiliation = None , slogan = , headmaster = R. B. Malpass , founder = Laurence Hynes Halloran , chairman = ...

, but left at the age of sixteen to run the family farm at Wingen. He eventually owned one of the most valuable estates in the area, totaling . In 1889 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Upper Hunter as a Protectionist, but was defeated in 1891. From 1890 he was a member of the Council of the Pastoralists' Union, serving as president from 1894 to 1897 and from 1900 to 1910. He was also President of the Pastoralists' Federal Council of Australia in 1891. He published a series of books, including an early work on the effect of

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

s on the Australian environment. Abbott died on his property from a self-induced dose of

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

in 1924.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, William 1844 births 1924 suicides 1924 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Protectionist Party politicians Suicides by poison Suicides in New South Wales People from Muswellbrook, New South Wales People educated at The King's School, Parramatta