Edward Charles Close (Senior) (12 March 1790 – 7 May 1866) was a British soldier, engineer, New South Wales colonial magistrate, member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. Along with the New South Wales Legislative As ...

, and early European settler in Morpeth."Edward Charles Close – New South Wales Sketchbook: Sea Voyage, Sydney, Illawarra, Newcastle, Morpeth, c. 1817-1840"
in ''Manuscripts, Oral History and Pictures Catalogue'' (database), New South Wales Government, State Library accessed 28 May 2013. He was born at Rangamati,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(in what is now

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

) and was the only child of merchant Edward and Marianne Collinson, daughter of Michael Collinson. He accompanied his mother to England when she went there following his father's death. They settled with Marianne's brother Charles Streynsham Collinson on his estate at the Chantry,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

. Enlisted in the army in 1808, he served in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

as lieutenant in the 48th Regiment. He arrived in New South Wales on the 3rd of August 1817 on the Matilda. Close was transferred to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

where he was acting engineer from 1821 to 1822. On 27 September 1821 at St John's Church, Parramatta he married Sophia Susannah Palmer, daughter of John Palmer. In 1822 he resigned from the army to settle in a 2,560 acre property in Morpeth. In 1829 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, however he found membership of the council to be a burden, both in expense and time and he resigned with effect from 1838. Close's son, Edward Charles Close junior, was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Close, Edward Charles Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 1790 births 1866 deaths 19th-century Australian politicians People from Maitland, New South Wales