Fergus Smith
politician and pastoralist in New South Wales, Australia (1843–1924)
Fergus Jago Smith (8 June 1843 – 25 January 1924) was an Australian politician and pastoralist.
Early life
He was born at Gulgong to John Smith, a chemistry professor and later politician, and Mary née Tom, the eldest of 11 children. He attended The King's School in Parramatta, and after a world tour worked on his father's station at Molong and then on another station near Bathurst which he later owned.
Political career
In 1887 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Free Trade member for West Macquarie. He did not re-contest in 1889. In 1895 he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, where he remained until his death. He was a brother-in-law to fellow politicians Charles Barton and Sir Joseph Innes.
Personal life
Smith married Emily Grace Machattie on 25 January 1866. They had no children, but adopted a daughter, Violet Kathleen Marion, who married Lieutenant-Colonel Chetwynd Rokeby Alfred Bond, who served in the Indian Staff Corps. Smith died at Bathurst on 25 January 1924(1924-01-25) (aged 80), and his estate was valued at £76,810.
“Fergus Smith” enters the record as politician and pastoralist in New South Wales, Australia (1843–1924). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fergus, Smith and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Fergus Smith” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fergus, Smith and politician provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q21069598. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1843, 1924, 1887 and 1889.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fergus Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.