Francis Edward Bigge (1820—1915) was a pioneer pastoralist and politician in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. 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 ...

and a

Member of the Queensland Legislative Council Following are lists of members of the Queensland Legislative Council The Queensland Legislative Council was the upper house of the parliament in the Australian state of Queensland. It was a fully nominated body which first took office on 1 May ...

. He championed the development of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Moreton Bay Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...

. He was influential in achieving the

separation of Queensland The Separation of Queensland was an event in 1859 in which the land that forms the present-day State of Queensland in Australia was excised from the Colony of New South Wales and created as a separate Colony of Queensland. History European sett ...

from New South Wales, but did not succeed in making Cleveland the capital of Queensland.

Early life

Francis Edward Bigge was born in July 1820, the youngest son of Thomas Hanway Bigge and his wife Charlotte (née Scott), of

Little Benton Little Benton is a small suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England. He was from an old Northumberland family, his cousin

Lord Stamfordham Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur John Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, (18 June 1849 – 31 March 1931) was a British Army officer and courtier. He was Private Secretary to Queen Victoria during the last few years of her reign, and to George V during mos ...

being the private secretary to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

and his uncle being

John Bigge John Thomas Bigge (8 March 1780 – 22 December 1843) was an English judge and royal commissioner. He is mostly known for his inquiry into the British colony of New South Wales published in the early 1820s. His reports favoured a return to the ...

, the special commissioner to examine the colony of

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 ...

under the governorship of

Lachlan Macquarie Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; gd, Lachann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie se ...

. Bigge was educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. In 1835 he was appointed as a midshipmen on the (a 50-gun frigate) in 1835, and served a commission in her in the Mediterranean for some four years.

First Australian sojourn

In 1839 he left the Navy, and travelled to Australia, to join his elder brother

Frederick William Bigge Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederi ...

, who had settled in

. The trip from London to

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

took five months. After his arrival in New South Wales, the two brothers were inspired the success of the Leslie Brothers, who pioneered the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

(then in New South Wales but later part of Queensland) and decided to try settling in the

district. They travelled overland to the Moreton Bay area in about 1842, where they "

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

" in the

Mount Brisbane Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

district, their headquarters being known as "Bigge's Camp". They were nicknamed "Big Bigge" (Frederick) and "Little Bigge" (Francis). It was during that time that Francis Bigge had an encounter with a notorious gang of

bushrangers Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...

, known as "Wilson's Gang"in the Moombye district, New South Wales territory, while travelling with cattle from there to Mount Brisbane. Francis Bigge stood his ground determinedly against the bushrangers. One of the bushrangers, Tom Forrester, nicknamed "Long Tom" wanted to shoot Bigge, but the leader of the bushrangers would not allow this, owing to Bigge's bravery. The members of the gang were subsequently hanged. This event is believed to have been used in the novel "

Robbery Under Arms ''Robbery Under Arms'' is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pen name Rolf Boldrewood. It was first published in serialised form by ''The Sydney Mail'' between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in ...

". From September 1851 to December 1852, Francis Bigge was elected to 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 ...

representing the Pastoral Districts of Moreton, Wide Bay, Burnett and Maranoa, (areas that would later become part of the

Colony of Queensland The Colony of Queensland was a colony of the British Empire from 1859 to 1901, when it became a State in the federal Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. At its greatest extent, the colony included the present-day State of Queensland, t ...

). About 1852, Bigge had Cleveland House built for him in Cleveland; it may have been intended as a hotel, but was unoccupied for many years and became known as Bigge's Folly. However, later it became the Brighton Hotel and is now (2014) the heritage-listed

Grand View Hotel Grand View Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 49 North Street, Cleveland, Queensland, Cleveland, City of Redland, Queensland, Australia. It was built onwards. It was also known as Brighton Hotel and Cleveland House. It was added to the Queen ...

First return to England

In November 1853, Francis Bigge returned to England, expecting to be away for two to three years. While in England, he pressed for separation of Queensland from New South Wales. In 1857, Francis Bigge married Elizabeth Barbara Ord, the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Charles Old, rector of

Gaulby Gaulby (or Galby) is a village in Leicestershire, England, 7 miles east of the city of Leicester. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 131, (including Frisby). The 2011 census for Gaulby returned 52 houses and 141 residents. Histo ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

Second Australian sojourn

Francis Bigge returned to Moreton Bay in June 1858, accompanied by his new wife. Francis Bigge was appointed a Member of the first

Queensland Legislative Council The Queensland Legislative Council was the upper house of the parliament in the Australian state of Queensland. It was a fully nominated body which first took office on 1 May 1860. It was abolished by the Constitution Amendment Act 1921, which to ...

on 1 May 1860. Initially it was a five-year appointment, but later it was extended to be a life appointment. He resigned on 16 May 1873. During this time, Bigge's Camp became the terminus of Queensland's first railway line. The

Queensland Governor The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial functi ...

George Bowen Sir George Ferguson Bowen (; 2 November 1821 – 21 February 1899), was an Irish author and colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong.R. B. Joy ...

decided that Bigge's Camp was too mundane a name and, being a student of the classics, proposed it be renamed Grandchester, ''Grand'' being ''big'' and ''chester'' being ''camp'' in Latin.

Later life

In 1873, Francis Bigge returned to England to settle in

Cockington Cockington is a village near Torquay in the English county of Devon. It has old cottages within its boundaries, and is about a half a mile away from Torquay. Bus service 62 (Torquay circular) calls at the village five times per day (Mon-Fri) an ...

, Devon. His wife predeceased him in January 1914. Francis Bigge died on 3 December 1915 at

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

, England aged 96 years. He was thought to be the oldest officer of the Royal Navy. Apart from some small bequests, his estate valued at £133,795 was shared between his cousin Lord Strathfordham and another cousin Harry Scott Judd.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigge, Francis Edward Members of the Queensland Legislative Council Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 1820 births 1915 deaths Australian pastoralists People from Redland City Pre-Separation Queensland People from Newcastle upon Tyne (district) People from Torbay (district) 19th-century Australian businesspeople