Patrick Perkins

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Hon

|name = Patrick Perkins

|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|sep=,|JP}}

|image = StateLibQld 2 182083 Brewer and politician Patrick Perkins, 1879.jpg

|caption =

| constituency_AM1 = Aubigny

| assembly1 = Queensland Legislative

| term_start1 = 1 May 1877

| term_end1 = 21 February 1884

| predecessor1 = Edward Pechey

| successor1 = James Campbell

| constituency_AM2 = Cambooya

| assembly2 = Queensland Legislative

| term_start2 = 10 May 1888

| term_end2 = 6 May 1893

| predecessor2 = New seat

| successor2 = Henry Daniels

| office3 = Member of the Queensland Legislative Council

| term_start3 = 23 May 1893

| term_end3 = 17 May 1901

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1838|10|10|df=y}}

|birth_place = Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland

|death_date = {{death date and age|1901|5|17|1838|10|10|df=y}}

|death_place = Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

|restingplace = Boroondara General Cemetery

|birthname = Patrick Perkins

|party =

|otherparty =

|spouse = Mary Ellen Hickey

| alma_mater =

| occupation = Brewer

| relations =

}}

Hon. Patrick Perkins, J. P., (10 October 1838 – 17 May 1901), nicknamed Paddy Perkins,{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82325058

|title=Death of "Paddy" Perkins.

|newspaper=The North Queensland Register

|location=Townsville, Qld.

|date=20 May 1901

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=51

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 May 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082355/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82325058

|url-status=live

}} was a brewer and politician in colonial Queensland. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and, later, a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council.{{cite Australasia|Perkins, Hon. Patrick}}

Early life

Patrick Perkins was born in a cottage on a small farm in the village of Clonoulty near Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland.{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104421900

|title=All About People

|newspaper=The Catholic Press

|location=N.S.W.

|date=25 May 1901

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=5

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 May 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082349/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104421900

|url-status=live

}} He was the second son of Thomas Perkins, a farmer, and his wife Ellen (née Gooley).{{cite web|url=http://trees.ancestry.com.au/tree/61740814/person/38072618336?ssrc=&ml_rpos=7|title=Patrick Perkins|last=Ancestry user: lynchfamilytrust|date=|work=Perkins family tree|publisher=Ancestry.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082354/https://www.ancestry.com.au/account/signin?returnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ancestry.com.au%2ffamily-tree%2fperson%2ftree%2f61740814%2fperson%2f38072618336|archive-date=12 May 2024|access-date=25 January 2014|url-status=live}} He attended the local National School.

Thomas and Ellen Perkins and their eight children (including Patrick) immigrated on the Persian, departing Southampton and arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 9 April 1854.{{cite web|title=Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923|url=http://search.ancestry.com.au/search/db.aspx?dbid=1635|publisher=Ancestry.com|access-date=25 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140126191220/http://search.ancestry.com.au/search/db.aspx?dbid=1635|archive-date=26 January 2014|url-status=live}}

In 1861, he married Mary Ellen Hickey in Victoria. They had four children born in Victoria:Thomas Hector (born 1864); Mary Eveleen, (1867–1942) m. Charles Allan; Edgar Colin Francis (born 1868) and Lilly Eleanor Perkins (born 1875) m. Randall Macdonnell, m. George Wilkie Gray. They had two children born in Queensland: Patrick Harold (born 1878) and Helene Cicilia (born 1880, Toowoomba d 1965 Adelaide), Sr Margaret Mary of the Dominican priory, Adelaide.{{cite web

|title=Search birth historical records

|url=https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/queryEntry.m?type=births

|publisher=Queensland Government

|access-date=25 January 2014

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312041850/https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/queryEntry.m?type=births

|archive-date=12 March 2011

|url-status=live

}}

Business

Patrick Perkins was a miner and storekeeper on the diggings in Victoria in districts including Ballarat, Bendigo, Woods Point and Jamieson.{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44311613

|title=People.

|newspaper=The Barrier Miner

|location=Broken Hill, New South Wales

|date=22 May 1901

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=2

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 May 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082353/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/44311613

|url-status=live

}}

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article21262667

|title=Death of the Hon. P. Perkins.

|newspaper=The Queenslander

|location=Brisbane

|date=25 May 1901

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=1018

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 May 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082350/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/21262667

|url-status=live

}}

With his brother Thomas, he started breweries in Victoria and Queensland. In 1866, Patrick Perkins started the Perkins Brewery in Toowoomba. In 1872, he later extended his operations to Brisbane with the purchase of the City Brewery in 1872.{{cite web

|title=Castlemaine Perkins (Fourex) Brewery

|url=http://www.exploreaustralia.net.au/Queensland/Brisbane/Inner-West/Milton/XXXX-Brewery#

|publisher=Explore Australia Publishing

|access-date=18 January 2014

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110093343/http://www.exploreaustralia.net.au/Queensland/Brisbane/Inner-West/Milton/XXXX-Brewery

|archive-date=10 January 2014

|url-status=live

}}

In 1876, Patrick Perkins moved to Queensland in order to manage the Brisbane and Toowoomba breweries.

Perkins also had interests in property and mining, including the Mount Morgan Mine and coal mining in the West Moreton area.

He was considered a shrewd and successful business man.

Politics

On 9 April 1877, Edward Wilmot Pechey, the member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly in the seat of Aubigny, resigned. On 1 May 1877, in a by-election, Perkins was elected in Aubigny, defeating Angus Mackay (the then editor of The Queenslander) by a large majority. He was elected again in Aubigny in the 1878 election and was appointed as Minister of Lands in the First McIlwraith Ministry from 21 January 1879 to 13 November 1883.

Perkins was elected again in Aubigny in the 1883 election,{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3421147

|title=Queensland News

|newspaper=The Brisbane Courier

|date=21 August 1883

|access-date=18 January 2014

|page=5

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 May 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082340/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3421147

|url-status=live

}} However, allegations about electoral fraud (including intimidation, bribery, and ballot stuffing) in the Aubigny election started to surface,{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82088921

|title=How the Elections have been Conducted.

|newspaper=Warwick Examiner and Times

|location=Queensland

|date=3 October 1883

|access-date=18 January 2014

|page=2

|publisher=National Library of Australia

|archive-date=12 May 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512082350/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82088921

|url-status=live

}} resulting in a petition to the Governor of Queensland detailing numerous kind of electoral fraud and asking to declare that the Aubigny election was void and that Patrick Perkins was guilty of bribery and corruption.

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122934370

|title=Petition Against the Return of Mr. Perkins.

|newspaper=Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald & General Advertiser

|date=20 October 1883

|access-date=18 January 2014

|page=2

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}} On 21 February 1884, the Committee of Elections and Qualifications ruled the Aubigny election was null and void and called for a by-election.

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82089824

|title=Local and General News.

|newspaper=Warwick Examiner and Times

|location=Queensland

|date=23 February 1884

|access-date=18 January 2014

|page=2

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}} Perkins had denied any involvement in the alleged electoral fraud and the Committee of Elections and Qualifications did not disqualify him from re-contesting the seat, which provoked outrage in some quarters.

{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3427449

|title=The Brisbane Courier |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier

|location=Queensland

|date=26 February 1884

|access-date=18 January 2014

|page=4

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}}

{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3427513

|title=The Brisbane Courier.

|newspaper=The Brisbane Courier

|location=Queensland

|date=28 February 1884

|access-date=18 January 2014

|page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

However, Patrick Perkins announced he would not re-contest the seat as he would be taking a trip to England.

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109867491

|title=Queensland News

|newspaper=The Evening News

|location=Sydney

|date=29 February 1884 |access-date=18 January 2014

|page=2

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}}

James Campbell was elected unopposed at the resulting by-election on 4 March 1884.

At the 1888 election, Perkins was elected in the seat of Cambooya on 10 May 1888, which he held until 6 May 1893.

On 23 May 1893, Perkins was appointed to Queensland Legislative Council from 23 May 1893. Being a lifetime appointment, he served until his death on 17 May 1901.{{Cite QldMLA|accessdate=27 April 2020}}

The house "Aubigny"

File:Wedding guests of Miss Perkins and Mr Randall McDonnell in the grounds of Aubigny, at North Quay, Brisbane, 1897.jpg

In 1883 used his wealth to buy a palatial home at 273 North Quay, Brisbane, which he called "Aubigny" after the electorate that first sent him to parliament. The house was originally built in 1870 by Samuel Davis, a Jewish businessman, and included a separate building used as Brisbane's first synagogue. Patrick Perkins used the former synagogue as a billiards room. In 1899, the Perkins family rented the property to the Criminal Investigation Department which used the house as offices and the synagogue as a photography room. In 1906, the house was sold to the Rev. Mother Patrick of the Sisters of Mercy to create the 20-bed Mater Misericordiae Hospital (now a tertiary hospital located at South Brisbane); the former synagogue being the hospital chapel. Once the hospital outgrew the house and relocated to the South Brisbane area where it still operates, the house was renamed "Loretto" and used as a hostel for Catholic girls; the former synagogue being the maids' quarters. In about 1939 the house was demolished to make way for the construction of a church for the Church of Christ, Scientist.

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23132696

|title=BRISBANE'S HISTORIC HOMES.

|newspaper=The Queenslander

|date=11 December 1930

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=46

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}}

{{Citation

|author1=Unidentified

|title=Aubigny a residence in North Quay, ca. 1905

|publication-date=1905

|publisher=John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/36911789

|access-date=25 January 2014

}}

Later life

He attended the opening of the first Federal Parliament at the Royal Exhibition Building on 9 May 1901 and caught a chill which developed into bronchial pneumonia, from which he died on Friday 17 May 1901 at "Ingleborough", Berkeley Street, Hawthorn.

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4840140

|title=VICTORIA.

|newspaper=The Advertiser

|location=Adelaide

|date=21 May 1901

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=5

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}}

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19105630

|title=Death of Hon. P. Perkins.

|newspaper=The Brisbane Courier

|date=18 May 1901

|access-date=27 August 2014

|page=4

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}}

On Saturday 18 May 1901, his funeral was conducted at the Roman Catholic church at Glenferrie, after which he was buried in the Boroondara General Cemetery in Kew, Melbourne.

{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10551150

|title=Family Notices.

|newspaper=The Argus

|location=Melbourne

|date=18 May 1901

|access-date=25 January 2014

|page=9

|publisher=National Library of Australia

}}{{cite news

|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128570514

|title=Death of an Old Colonist.