Samuel Stocks

{{short description|Businessman early in the life of the colony of South Australia}}

{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Samuel Stocks

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{circa|1786}}

| birth_place = England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1863|3|8|1786|df=y}}

| death_place = Prospect, South Australia

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation = Businessman

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| spouse = {{plainlist|

• Barbara (died January 1868)
• {{marriage|Frances Driver (nee Hawson)|29 June 1858}}

}}

| family = Samuel Stocks, jun. (son)

}}

Samuel Stocks ({{circa|1786}} – 8 March 1863) and his son Samuel Stocks, jun. were businessmen in the early days of the Colony of South Australia.

Stocks was a citizen of Heaton Mersey, near Manchester, where he was senior partner of the bleaching firm of Stocks and Tait which failed during the Panic of 1847.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2969415 |title=List of Failures during the Late Monetary Pressure |newspaper=The Courier |location=Hobart, Tas. |date=12 April 1848 |accessdate=26 September 2012 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} He contested, unsuccessfully, the parliamentary seat of Stockport before migrating to South Australia.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50171133 |title=The Late Mr. Stocks |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=9 March 1863 |accessdate=25 September 2012 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} He arrived in Adelaide via Sydney on the Dorset on 27 August 1843.

At some stage he returned to England and arrived back in Adelaide with his wife Barbara on the Zealous on 26 May 1848.

He was a dedicated churchman; secretary of Christchurchlater written "Christ Church", in Jeffcott Street, North Adelaide, an avowedly traditional Anglican cathedral Sunday School, and a member of the Diocesan Synod.

He was appointed to the Destitute Board in 1852.