William Jack Forlonge (15 May 1813 – 15 September 1890) was a pastoralist and politician in colonial

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

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 ...

, a member of the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Co ...

, the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

and 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 ...

Early life

Forlonge was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of John and

Eliza Forlonge Eliza Forlong (1784–1859) was an Australian pioneer who played a large part in introducing Merino sheep to south-east Australia. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 21 October 1784, the daughter of Alexander Jack, teacher, and his wife Jean ...

. John Forlonge (died 1834) was a merchant in Glasgow and decided to send his two surviving sons to New South Wales, several of his children having earlier died from tuberculosis. William Forlonge, his brother Andrew and their mother went to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

with his mother in 1826 where William worked in a wool sorting house for three years. John joined his family in 1828. Eliza chose 98 Saxon sheep from studs, then she and her sons drove them to Hamburg. The sheep were shipped to Hull and were driven from there to Liverpool where they sailed, with William, for

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in the ''Clansman''.

Colonial Australia

William Forlonge arrived in Hobart Town,

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...

, in November 1829 and decided to stay there. He was eventually granted of land near

Campbell Town Campbell Town is a town in Tasmania, Australia, on the Midland Highway. At the 2021 census, the town had a population of 823. History Traditional owners of the Campbell Town area The traditional custodians of the Campbell Town area were t ...

. William Forlonge moved to the

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

along with his brother Andrew in 1838. In 1851, William purchased the Seven Creeks property in Euroa. In October 1854 Forlonge was elected to the unicameral Victorian Legislative Council for Villiers and Heytesbury, becoming a spokesman for

squatters 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 ...

. Forlonge was a member of the Council until the original Council was abolished in March 1856. Forlonge became a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for The Murray in a by-election in January 1858 and resigned in January 1859. Forlonge then took the lease of

Aynhoe Park Aynhoe Park, is a 17th-century country estate consisting of land and buildings that were rebuilt after the English Civil War on the southern edge of the stone-built village of Aynho, Northamptonshire, England. It overlooks the Cherwell valley tha ...

, near Brackley, Northamptonshire, when he was selected Conservative candidate for

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in the by-election of 28 March 1860, but he was not elected. Leaving his wife and family at Aynhoe, he returned to New South Wales, becoming a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 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 * ...

on 15 December 1864, a seat he held until 12 June 1867, when he was declared insolvent, and resigned his seat. Forlonge died in Dubbo, New South Wales, on .

Family

He married his first cousin Marion Templeton (b. Glasgow 1819; d. Montreux, Vaud, Switzerland, abt 13 Feb 1882) in New South Wales on 13 May 1837, by whom he had eleven children. His eldest daughter, (Christina) Eliza, married

Reginald Stuart Poole Reginald Stuart Poole (27 January 18328 February 1895), known as Stuart Poole, was an English archaeologist, numismatist and Orientalist. Poole was from a famous Orientalist family as his mother Sophia Lane Poole, his uncle Edward William Lane an ...

, archaeologist and Orientalist. His second daughter, Janet, married

William Barton Wright William Barton Wright (13 November 1828 – 7 May 1915) was an English mechanical engineer, also tea plantation owner and mine owner. He was Locomotive Superintendent of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) from 1875. During his ten-year ca ...

, railway engineer, who was himself father of

Edward William Barton-Wright Edward William Barton-Wright CE, FRSA, MJS (member of the Japan Society) (8 November 186013 September 1951) was an English entrepreneur specialising in both self defence training and physical therapy. He is remembered today as one of the fir ...

, pioneer of hybrid martial arts in the West. He married secondly in 1889, after his first wife's death, Elizabeth Mary Nolan: no further issue.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forlonge, William 1811 births 1890 deaths Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian pastoralists Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia 19th-century Australian politicians 19th-century Australian businesspeople