William Rigg (1 January 1847 – 3 November 1926) was an English-born Australian politician. He was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

to joiner George Rigg and Sarah Barclay. The family moved to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , 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 ...

around 1852, and Rigg attended

Christ Church School Christ Church School is a private coeducational prep school located in Mumbai, India. It is a Christian school, founded in 1815, under the auspices of the Bombay Education Society. It has close to 3800 students, all of whom are night scholars. ...

until the age of fifteen, when he began working in the office of the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company. He eventually rose to become chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, and also founded the Clyde Engineering Company. He was six times Mayor of Newtown and served as an alderman for twenty-three years. On 17 September 1873 he married Elizabeth Gregg, with whom he had six children; he later married Harriett Westbrook in England around 1884 and had a daughter. In 1894 Rigg was elected to 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 ...

as the member for Newtown-St Peters; he was generally considered a

Free Trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

r. He held the seat until his defeat in 1901. Rigg died at

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney. I ...

in 1926.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigg, William 1847 births 1926 deaths Mayors of Newtown Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Free Trade Party politicians Colony of New South Wales people