James Williamson (New Zealand politician)
{{Short description|New Zealand politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2014}}
James Williamson (1814 – 22 March 1888) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament, merchant and land speculator in the Auckland Region, New Zealand.
Biography
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{{NZ parlbox
|start = {{By-election link year|City of Auckland West|1862}}
|end = 1866
|term = 3rd
|electorate = Auckland West
|party = Independent politician
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{{NZ parlbox
|start = {{NZ election link year|1866}}
|end = 1867
|term = 4th
|electorate = Auckland West
|party = Independent politician
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Williamson was born in Belfast, Ireland, probably in 1814. His parents were Ann Gardiner and Thomas Williamson, who owned ships and was a linen merchant. James Williamson started going to sea at a young age on his father's ships. He went to the Bay of Islands in 1840 and settled in Russell, New Zealand.{{DNZB|Stone|Russell |1w27|Williamson, James – Biography|31 March 2012||Russell Stone (historian)}}
He represented the Auckland West electorate from 1862 to 1867, when he resigned.{{cite book |last= Wilson |first= James Oakley |title= New Zealand parliamentary record, 1840–1984 |edition=4th |orig-year= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc= 154283103 |page=246 }}
He was then appointed to the Legislative Council in 1870 and remained a member until his death in 1888.{{cite book |last= Scholefield |first= Guy |author-link=Guy Scholefield|title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 |edition=3rd |orig-year= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1950 |publisher=Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |page=87}}
He was a successful businessman and was a co-founder of the New Zealand Insurance Company (1859), the Bank of New Zealand (1861), and the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company (1865). In 1877 he built the Pah Homestead (or The Pah) a historic stately home on Pah Farm a 313-acre estate located in the Auckland suburb of Hillsborough. He became insolvent during the fall of value of rural land in the 1880s, and his was the most spectacular failure of the successful Auckland businessmen.
References
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Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
Category:Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council
Category:People from the Auckland Region
Category:New Zealand MPs for Auckland electorates
Category:Politicians from Belfast
Category:Irish emigrants to New Zealand
Category:New Zealand business executives
Category:19th-century New Zealand politicians
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