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Percy Wells (15 February 1825 – 2 December 1909) was an English businessman who had a career in the
colony of South Australia A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
. Wells acted as agent in South Australia for the English
marine engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circ ...
firm of Wells Brothers, of which his brother George Wells was a principal.


Business career

Wells arrived in
Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...
in May 1858, and for nearly two years worked as accountant for the ''
Adelaide Advertiser ''The Advertiser'' is a daily tabloid format newspaper based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. First published as a broadsheet named ''The South Australian Advertiser'' on 12 July 1858,Philip Levi Philip Levi (1 February 1822 – 13 May 1898) was an early settler and pastoralist of South Australia. Born at Brixton Hill, Surrey, England, Levi arrived in South Australia at the age of sixteen, aboard the '' Eden'' in 1838 with his parent ...
& Co., in which his uncle Alfred Watts was a partner. Subsequently, he entered into partnership with Watts as agents for English investors who had a plan unveiled in 1869 to construct an outer harbour in Largs Bay free of cost to the South Australian Government. This project, if approved, would allow the berthing of ships of deeper draught than possible in Port Adelaide, despite extensive (and expensive)
dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...
. The scheme was well received by the Adelaide newspapers, but unsurprisingly opposed by vested interests at Port Adelaide, and was rejected by a select committee of the Legislative Council. It would have meant giving the consortium monopoly rights to the facilities provided, a not dissimilar situation to the modern provision of
toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...
s. A later, Government funded, scheme was promoted by
Rowland Rees Rowland Rees (25 September 1840 – 13 October 1904) was an architect, civil engineer and politician in South Australia. Early life Rees was born in Gibraltar, the eldest son of Rowland Rees, of Sutrana House, Dover, and later alderman of B ...
, MHA. Wells acted as agent in South Australia for the English marine engineering firm of Wells Brothers, of which his brother George Wells was a principal. George was a licensee of Mitchell's screw pile patent, a system for rigidly mounting structures to solid rock. Wells submitted a tender to the South Australian Government for installation of a lighthouse on the Margaret Brock Reef using this technology, and despite protestations of men like O. A. Babbage, the tender was as accepted. The tender price had however been based on a false assumption of the number of days calm enough to operate the machinery and the one year job ended up taking three, and resulted in the bankruptcy of the contractor W. F. King. But the work was eventually completed and the
Cape Jaffa lighthouse Cape Jaffa Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse formerly located on Margaret Brock Reef near Cape Jaffa on the southeast coast of South Australia and whose tower has been located in the town of Kingston SE since 1976. The former lighthous ...
went into operation in 1872. He later controlled the erection of the Tiparra Reef lighthouses, a jetty on the
Cape Jaffa Cape Jaffa is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located at the south end of Lacepede Bay on the state's south east coast about south west of the town centre of Kingston SE. The cape is described as being "a low sandy poin ...
reef, and jetties at
Kingston SE Kingston SE (Kingston South East to distinguish it from Kingston on Murray), formerly Kingston, is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's south-east coastline on the shores of Lacepede Bay. It is located about ...
and
Rivoli Bay Rivoli Bay () is a bay located on the south-east coast of the Australian state of South Australia, about south-southeast of the state capital of Adelaide and about northwest by west of the regional centre of Mount Gambier. It was named in 1802 ...
. Disputes arose between the firm of Wells Brothers and the Government, and after legal proceedings and reference to arbitration the latter agreed to take over the plant and material and finish the work.


Other activity

Prior to first visiting Australia, Wells was an active
Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
, and laid was one of those whose efforts culminated in the Grand Lodge of South Australia, the Mother Grand Lodge of Australasia. He was in consequence given a grand reception by the Lodges and Chapters when he returned to Adelaide for a brief residence in 1902 and 1903. He was one of the founders of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and around 1880 took the degree of M.D. in an American University, but he rarely practised. He made important discoveries in pharmacy, but only took out one patent. Wells returned to England with his family on the Orient Line ship '' Yatala'' in 1872, which on 27 March was wrecked off France, but without loss of life. He died in
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
.


Family

He was married to Caroline (7 July 1831 – 7 July 1901)(1 July 1899?). He was survived by one daughter and seven sons, including: *Edmund Percy Wells CE (c. 1855 – 30 August 1920) was a successful civil engineer, died in
Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...
. *Frederick Bagshawe Wells (c. 1857 – 29 January 1925), married Bessie Harbron of
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
,
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
(''then known as Warrigal'') on 25 July 1890, lived in
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
. *(Francis) Harry Wells married Esther Ethel Mead on 26 November 1904. He married again, to Margaret Louisa Rogers of
Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
on 21 July 1912. He served as a mounted constable in South Australia and the Northern Territory, later became South Australia's first Registrar of Motor Vehicles. *
Alfred Wells Alfred Wells (May 27, 1814 – July 18, 1867) was a U.S. Representative from New York. Biography Alfred Wells was born in Dagsboro, Sussex County, Delaware on May 27, 1814. He pursued classical studies, and later studied law in the office ...
(16 May 1859 – 8 December 1935) was an Adelaide architect associated with Edmund Wright, then Latham A. Withall.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Percy British accountants 19th-century British pharmacists Australian accountants Australian Freemasons 1825 births 1909 deaths 19th-century English businesspeople 19th-century Australian businesspeople English pharmacists