Henry Condell | |
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An 1888 illustration of Condell
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1st Mayor of Melbourne | |
In office 1842–1844 |
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Succeeded by | Henry Moor |
Personal details | |
Born |
Funchal, Madeira |
9 September 1791
Died | 9 September 1871 Oak House, South Mimms, London, England |
(aged 80)
Spouse(s) | Marion née Vallange |
Henry Condell (1797–1871) was the first Mayor of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He served from 1842 to 1844, and was succeeded by Henry Moor.
Condell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council as the first member for Town of Melbourne on 1 June 1843. He held this seat until 1 February 1844 when replaced by Joseph Robinson.
Henry Condell was born on 9 September 1797 in Funchal, Madeira, the sixth of eight children. His father, Joseph Alexander Condell (born Musselburgh, Scotland, 1749), was a brewer in Leith and his mother was Martha (née French). Condell's parents married in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Lincoln's Inn, London in 1783 before traveling to Madeira (Martha's birthplace), where they operated a wine and spirits business.
Condell was sent to Scotland to be educated at the Musselburgh Grammar School. At the age of sixteen he left school to work for John Small & Company in Calcutta but the climate did not agree with him, and he fell ill. After leaving Calcutta, Henry moved to New Brunswick, Canada but he was unsuccessful in his application to buy land. He left New Brunswick in 1821, planning to travel to New South Wales to settle, but first he returned to Edinburgh where he married Marion Vallange on 28 May 1822.
He left Scotland for Van Diemen's Land on 24 June 1822 on board the "Skelton" and arrived at Hobart Town on 24 December 1822. Marion and their first child Jane did not accompany him remaining in Edinburgh. Marion traveled to Hobart three years later, leaving their daughter Jane behind to be looked after by grandparents in Edinburgh. A son, William Vallange, was born in Hobart Town in 1827.