Thomas Williams (South Australian politician)
Thomas Williams of Rushden Hall & Wanfield Lodge (c. 1794 – 2 December 1881) was a politician in the colony of South Australia, serving as a non-official acting member of the Legislative Council of South Australia from June 1843 to September 1843. History. Williams was a son of Robert Williams of Wanfield Lodge (died 1803) and Jane Cunningham, whom he married in 1794. The Williams were an old family of Herringston, Dorset, with interests in the banking business. Williams was at one time High Sheriff of Northamptonshire and a partner in the banking firm of Williams  Deacon and Co. He was a major investor with the South Australian Company and closely associated with Lord John Russell, Gibbon Wakefield, and George Fife Angas. Williams, his wife Catherine, née Codd, and much of their family emigrated on the "Platina", arriving in South Australia in February 1839, and for a time they lived in "The Barn", in Wakefield Street, a rambling thatched wooden structure built in 1837, perhaps Adelaide's first permanent residence, whose previous tenants included H. B. T. Strangways, Lady Hindmarsh, then Hindmarsh's sons-in-law Milner Stephen and Alfred Miller Mundy. The place was destroyed  by fire in May 1857. Williams, with Governor Gawler and J. B. Hack had a "Special Survey" of Little Para farm land taken out in the Para Wirra area, and by him named "The Hermitage", his portion being . He fenced the property, and built a homestead where he lived, and as early as 1840 was growing wheat. He established a garden and vineyard, asserted to have been SA's first. To pay for this and for his children's education, he liquidated almost every one of his shares in the South Australian Company, coupled with an overdraft on his account  with the Bank of South Australia of some £2,900. He was in June 1843 appointed by Governor Gawler to one of the four newly created "non-official" (i.e. without portfolio) seats on the second Legislative Council. Unfortunately for him, the value of his land had not increased as expected, and he had difficulties meeting the interest on his loan. He mortgaged the choicest 1,700 acres with his daughter Elizabeth, without mentioning the fact to the bank, which held the deeds as security on the overdraft. He resigned as an undischarged bankrupt, and Jacob Hagen was appointed in his place . He was jailed for six months for his fraudulent actions. His creditors were paid 2 shillings in the pound (10%), while his daughter, who in 1844 became Mrs. Peachey, retained possession of "The Hermitage". He had three children following his release (in 1844, 1846 and 1848), then returned to England, living at Wanfield Lodge near Windsor, Berkshire. Family. Thomas Williams married Mary Frances Benthon in 1817 and Catherine Codd in 1833. Their children on the "Platina" were: born in SA: arrived on "Lady MacNaughton" September 1851