James Willson Agnew KCMG MD JP (1815 - 1901)

Born 2 Oct 1815 in Ballyclare, Antrim, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Louisa Mary Fraser — married 27 Apr 1846 in Hobart,Tasmania,Australia

Husband of Blanche Legge — married 19 Nov 1878 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Descendants

Died 8 Nov 1901 at age 86 in Portland, Tasmania, Australia

Biography

James Willson Agnew was born on 2 October 1815 in Ballyclare, County Antrim, Northern Ireland and passed away on 8 November 1901 in Portland, Tasmania, Australia, according to his Australia and New Zealand Find A Grave Index record^[1]. He was the son of James William Agnew, physician, and his wife Ellen, née Stewart^[2] and followed in his father's footsteps by studying medicine at University College, London, where he was admitted as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1838, and then in Paris and Glasgow receiving his M.D. in 1839.

Another source has that he left his home in Ireland on the advice of his doctor at the age of 24 and arrived at Hobart in 1839, and bought Waverley homestead in 1840^[3]. This source indicates that the Agnew family originated in Scotland.

No record has been found for his emigration to Sydney (op.cit.) but he would make Tasmania his base from 1841 when he became Assistant Surgeon to the agricultural establishment, and later that year he became Assistant Surgeon to the Saltwater River probation station on the Tasman Peninsula. After a short stint on Norfolk Island in 1844, he returned to Hobart as Assistant Surgeon, where he married Louisa Mary Fraser on 27 April 1846, who was the daughter of Major Fraser of the 78th Regiment. The record has his middle name spelt Wilson as do all other records found, so it is not clear where the double 'll' came from? Their marriage was registered in Hobart, Tasmania.

According to an Ancestry Family Tree^[4] they had 8 children, not 6 as in the Biography, of whom five did not reach the age of five years. Two sons, Louis Stewart Agnew and Charles Stewart Agnew, outlived their mother but not their father, and one daughter, Robina Evelyn Agnew, the last born, outlived both their father and mother. The death date of Robina Evelyn Agnew seems to be incorrect when compared with the Ancestry FT that has the year as 1932 not 1866!

Agnew was an early member of the Tasmanian Society (later Royal Society), and in 1841 his first paper, 'Notes on the teeth and poison apparatus of the snakes of Tasman's peninsula', was published in the second volume of the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science. In 1851 he was elected to the council of the Royal Society, and was its honorary secretary in 1861-81 and 1884-94. He became the first chairman of the board of management of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and an early chairman of the trustees of the Hobart Public Library; he retained both offices until 1901. His ethnological pamphlet, Last of the Tasmanians, was published in Sydney in 1888.

Agnew continued his medical practice until 1877 when he retired on election to the Legislative Council. In that year he also became a member, without portfolio, in the ministry of (Sir) Philip Fysh; in 1878 he joined the ministry of William Giblin without portfolio. In 1881 he resigned from the Legislative Council and went to England. His first wife Louisa had died on 10 March 1868, and on 19 November 1878 he married Blanche Parsons, née Legge, widow of Rev. Samuel Parsons, with the marriage registered in Hobart, Tasmania. On his return from abroad he was again elected to the Legislative Council in 1884; in 1886-87 he was Premier^[5]. When his government was defeated he resigned from the Legislative Council and took no further part in politics, but became a member of the Council of Higher Education and in 1890 of the Council of the University of Tasmania.

In social life he was a good clubman, and as President of the Tasmanian Racing Club took an active interest in horse-racing. He was also an angler and made a large donation for the purpose of bringing salmon ova from Ireland for Tasmanian lakes and rivers. He was appointed K.C.M.G. in 1895.

In 1901 his health was obviously failing and he was deeply shocked by news that his only surviving son, Charles Stewart Agnew (b.1859), was drowned in his bath on the ship 'Coogee' between Hobart, Tasmania and Melbourne, Victoria, leaving a widow, five sons and a daughter. James Wilson Agnew died at his home in Hobart on 8 November 1901.

A portrait of Agnew, 'father of the club', by Tennyson Cole and presented by Alfred Dobson, is at the Tasmanian Club, Hobart. The artist's memoirs claim that Agnew refused to sit for the portrait until told that he was preventing the artist from earning a fee.

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/144761233
2. ↑ http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/agnew-sir-james-willson-2871
3. ↑ https://www.ancestry.co.uk/mediaui-viewer/tree/7686399/person/6123663597/media/a45cf5a8-6f0d-4ca4-87fb-5fabfc0d7a6b?_phsrc=CrY12067&_phstart=successSource
4. ↑ https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/55509031/family/familyview?cfpid=13829577344&selnode=1
5. ↑ https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60800&h=1505&ssrc=pt&tid=55509031&pid=13829577344&usePUB=true

• Birth, Death and Burial: Ancestry.com. Australia and New Zealand, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
• Marriage: Ancestry.com. Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Registration Number: 175

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Valerie Kerr for creating WikiTree profile Agnew-394 through the import of wiki.ged on Jul 25, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Valerie and others.