James Henry Atkinson (c. 1820 – 31 August 1873) was an English-born Australian politician. Though his exact date of birth is unknown, it is estimated to have been around 1820 in the city of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

in the county of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. He ran a wool washing works at Botany Swamps before erecting a dam at Lachlan Swamps around 1849. He later expanded to become a

fellmonger A fellmonger was a dealer in hides or skins, particularly sheepskins, who might also prepare skins for tanning. The name is derived from the Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English ...

. In 1859 he was elected to 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 ...

for Central Cumberland, serving until his resignation due to insolvency in 1863. Atkinson died at Newtown in 1873.

References

1820s births 1873 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 19th-century Australian politicians British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales {{Australia-politician-stub