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Robert Wilson (merchant)

notable New Zealand merchant and company director (1832–1899)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ7351150 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Wilson (1832–1899) was a New Zealand merchant and company director. He was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland in 1832. Wilson had married Eliza Jane Thomson at Upper Derriwell, Victoria, on 15 July 1862; they had three daughters and two sons. He retired in February 1895 and control of his firm passed to his elder son Leslie Robert, in partnership with T. S. Culling. Robert Wilson died on 19 August 1899 at his home in George Street, Dunedin, after an illness of about eight months; he was buried in the Southern cemetery.

Editorial summary

“Robert Wilson (merchant)” enters the record as notable New Zealand merchant and company director (1832–1899). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robert, Wilson and merchant can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1832, 1899, 1862, 1895—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1832-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Robert, Wilson and merchant.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Robert Wilson (merchant)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Robert, Wilson and merchant provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

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 Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7351150. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1832, 1899, 1862 and 1895.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Wilson (merchant)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Robert Wilson (merchant) primary sources, Robert Wilson (merchant) archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Wilson (merchant)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Robert Wilson (merchant)” 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.