Samuel Gordon (Australian politician)

Gordon was the son of an Irish farmer, David Gordon and his wife Mary Deane. Gordon was educated in private schools in Ireland.[1][2]

He emigrated to Sydney in 1829 and worked in a number of mercantile houses before commencing his own company, which was involved in trade between Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales. In 1840 Gordon established a large store in Liverpool, founded a brewery and acquired 50,000 acres of pastoral land on the Murrumbidgee. In 1848, Gordon sold his assets in Liverpool at a great profit and became a wine and spirits merchant in Sydney.[1]

During his later life, in partnership with Edward Flood, he gained control over 460 square miles (1,200 km²) of pastoral land in Queensland. He was also the director of a number of colonial companies including English, Scottish and Australian Bank. Gordon was involved in numerous local organisations including the Presbyterian Church, St. Andrew's College, Sydney and the YMCA.

In 1856 Gordon was elected as one of the three members for Durham in the first New South Wales Legislative Assembly.[3] Gordon was a supporter of John Dunmore Lang, Charles Cowper and John Robertson particularly in questions of constitutional reform, education and land reform.[1] He retained the seat at the 1858 election.[4] The seat was abolished in 1859 and Gordon stood unsuccessfully for The Williams,[5] and Morpeth in the 1858 elections, however he regained a seat in the Legislative Assembly at the 1859 Illawarra by-election.[6] He declined to stand for the seat at the 1860 election,[7][8] but accepted Cowper's invitation to join the Legislative Council as a life-time appointment in 1861.[2] He expressed a desire to reform the council into an elective house.[1]