Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (5 October 1811 – 17 October 1861) was an Australian pastoralist, politician and newspaper owner.

Biography

Born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

in the British

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Wills grew up on George Street with his mother Sarah Harding, a free settler, and his step father George Howe, a convict. Wills' father Edward Spencer Wills, a convict who was transported in 1799 for

highway robbery A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...

, died five months before his birth. Wills worked as a printer and editor for Australia's first newspaper, ''

The Sydney Gazette ''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' was the first newspaper printed in Australia, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of New South Wales, authorised by Govern ...

'', before founding his own journal, ''The Currency Lad'', in 1832. In it, he promoted the interests of " currency lads and lasses" (native-born white Australians) and made the earliest arguments for a form of

Australian republicanism Republicanism in Australia is a popular movement to change Australia's system of government from a constitutional parliamentary monarchy to a republic, replacing the monarch of Australia (currently Charles III) with a president. Republicanism ...

, prefiguring the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

attitudes of the late 19th century. McKenna, Mark (1996). The Captive Republic: A History of Republicanism in Australia 1788–1996. Cambridge University Press. . pp. 23–25. He fathered nine children, including

Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of New ...

, Australia's first great

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er and founder of

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

. In the late 1830s, Wills took up pastoralism and overlanded with his family to the Grampians region of the Port Phillip District (now the state of Victoria). Wills was one of the first settlers in the area, and purchased a property named ''Lexington'' near

Moyston Moyston is a town in the Western District region of Victoria, Australia, near the Grampians mountain range. The town is located in the Rural City of Ararat local government area, north west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2021 cen ...

. He built a house on the property; completed in 1845, it still exists and is now heritage-listed. While at Lexington he is credited as having named nearby Mount Ararat, from which the city of Ararat takes its name. He hired aborigines as station hands and harvesters on his property. In 1852, Wills sold Lexington and moved to Belle Vue in

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

. Wills was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative C ...

for

Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

on 10 January 1855; and was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

for South Grant in November 1856, a position he held until August 1859. In 1861, Horatio moved north to Queensland, at Cullin-la-ringo in the Nogoa region near

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of t ...

. Less than three weeks later, Wills was murdered by aborigines, along with 18 of his employ at the

Cullin-la-ringo massacre The Cullin-la-ringo massacre, known historically as the Wills tragedy, was a massacre of white colonists by Indigenous people that occurred north of modern-day Springsure in Central Queensland, Australia on 17 October 1861. Nineteen men, wom ...

, 17 October 1861; the largest massacre of whites by Aboriginal people in Australian history.

Sources

1811 births 1861 deaths 1861 murders in Australia Australian murder victims People murdered in Queensland Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Politicians from Sydney 19th-century Australian politicians Australian republicans {{australia-politician-stub