BARRY, WILLIAM JACKSON (1819-1907) was born in Melbourne, Cambridgeshire, and at the age of nine left England on a trip round the world in the Red Rover, an emigrant ship. At Sydney he deserted and worked for a butcher, who sent him to school at Parramatta, until in 1835 he left on a whaling cruise in the Mary. He deserted at Melbourne, but being retaken, sailed for the Bay of Islands. In 1838 he went with an expedition to form a convict settlement at New Holland, on the Australian coast, and being wrecked on the return journey, was one of three who were saved. He joined the navy in 1840 and went to India and China (where he took part in the first Chinese war). After several trips across the Tasman, trading and whaling, Barry left the sea and in 1845 married Miss French, of Western Australia. She brought him a substantial dowry, and for a time he managed her father's station. After her death he joined the California gold rush, where momentarily he made a fortune. Marrying again in 1852 at Shasta, he returned to Australia, lost his money in a wreck, but soon made another fortune in quartz mining at Ballarat. In the early sixties he brought his wife and family to New Zealand, where he worked first at Gabriel's Gully and later as a farmer and butcher in Cromwell. In 1864 Barry was elected mayor of Cromwell, and he held the position for a few years. He engaged in goldmining, auctioneering and butchering, and purchased a hotel in Queenstown, where his wife died in 1874. Four years later he visited England as immigration agent for the Government. Grey being put out of office during his absence, he carried out a lecture tour of England. On his return to New Zealand he contested the Dunedin West seat in Parliament (1887), but illness prevented him from prosecuting his campaign. His book, Up and Down: or 50 Years of Colonial Experience, was published in 1879. From 1887 he toured the Australian colonies giving lectures until he became too infirm. He also published Past and Present and Men of the Times (1897). Barry died on 25 Apr 1907.

Barry, op. cit. (p); The Press, 25 Apr 1907.

Reference: Volume 1, page 38

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