John Clements Wickham
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Captain John Clements Wickham |
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Portrait of John Clements Wickham
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| Police Magistrate, District of Moreton Bay, New South Wales |
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In office 1 January 1843 – 8 April 1853 |
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| Appointed by | Sir George Gipps |
| Preceded by | Gilbert Elliot |
| Succeeded by | None; position renamed Police Magistrate, Brisbane |
| Government Resident, District of Moreton Bay, New South Wales |
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In office 8 April 1853 – 1858 |
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| Appointed by | Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy |
| Preceded by | None |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Rawkins |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 November 1798 Leith, Scotland |
| Died | 6 January 1864 (aged 65) Biarritz, France |
| Resting place | churchyard of St Jean de Luz |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1812 – 1841 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Commands | HMS Beagle |
John Clements Wickham (21 November 1798 – 6 January 1864) was a Scottish explorer, naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was first officer on HMS Beagle during its second survey mission, 1831–1836, under captain Robert FitzRoy. The young naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin was a on the ship, and his journal was published as The Voyage of the Beagle. After that expedition, Wickham was promoted to Commander and made captain of the Beagle on its third voyage, from 1837 and conducted various maritime expeditions and hydrographic surveys along the Australian coastline.
In 1843, after his retirement from the Royal Navy, Wickham was made Police Magistrate and, later, Government Resident of the Moreton Bay District, in the Colony of New South Wales (NSW). Wickham retired in 1859, when the Moreton Bay District was separated from NSW, forming basis of the Colony of Queensland. When the Queensland and NSW governments disagreed over which was responsible for his pension, Wickham moved to France, where he died.
The origins of the Wickham family were Rowley, a Yorkshire village which later became depopulated. In 1638, two brothers, Richard and Thomas Wickham, were among the families to emigrate to America with Rev. Ezekiel Rogers after he was suspended as Rector of the parish church in 1638 for his non-conformist beliefs. Thomas married Sarah and their fifth son, Samuel Wickham, was born in 1664; he later settled in Rhode Island and became a Freeman of that Colony and a Deputy. Samuel Wickham married Barbara Holken in 1691 and their fifth son, Benjamin Wickham, was born 17 November 1701 at Rhode Island. Benjamin was chosen by the Rhode Island colonial Assembly in 1756 to be Lieutenant-Colonel of a Regiment raised for the second expedition against Crown Point. In 1757, a deputy for Newport he became Speaker of the House of Deputies. Benjamin married Mary, daughter of Colonel John Gardner in 1743 and Samuel Wickham, their sixth and youngest son, was born at Newport, Rhode Island in 1758. This Samuel rose to the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal Navy; while he was attached to the Portuguese Navy as an instructor he was given the rank of Captain-Lieutenant. He fought on the British side in the War of Independence after which he left America and settled in Scotland. On 16 June 1795 he married Ellen Susan Naylor at Gibraltar. John Clements Wickham was born to them on 21 November 1798 at Leith in Scotland.
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Wikipedia