Francis Dutton
Francis Stacker Dutton (
1816-
25 January 1877) was
premier of South Australia twice, in 1863 and again in 1865. He was born at
Cuxhaven,
Germany, where his father was
British vice-consul, in
1816. He was educated at
Hofwyl College, near
Bern in
Switzerland, and afterwards at the high school at
Bremen in Germany. When 17 he went to
Brazil as a junior clerk and was there for about five years in
Bahia and
Rio de Janeiro.
In
1839 he joined one of his brothers at
Sydney, went overland to
Melbourne, and followed mercantile pursuits for about 18 months, He then joined his brother Frederick at Adelaide and in 1842 or early in 1843 discovered
copper at
Kapunda, 45 miles north of
Adelaide. He showed the specimen he had found to
Captain Bagot who produced a similar specimen that his son had found in the same locality. The land was purchased and samples were sent to
England which showed a high percentage of copper. Dutton visited England in 1845 and sold his interest in the mine for a large sum. While in London he prepared for publication his
South Australia and its Mines, a work of 360 pages, an interesting and valuable contemporary account of the new colony published in
1846.
Dutton returned to South Australia in 1847 and in 1849 became a member of the Adelaide board of city commissioners. He was elected a member of the
Legislative Council in
1851 and sat until
1857, when he was elected as member for
Light in the
House of Assembly. He was commissioner of crown lands and immigration in the
Hanson government from
30 September 1857 to
2 June 1859, and was premier for a few days in July
1863. He formed his second cabinet on
22 March 1865 and was premier and commissioner of public works until
20 September of the same year, when he became agent-general in
London for South Australia. He was a good linguist, able to speak
French,
German and
Portuguese, and had an excellent knowledge of business which enabled him to carry out his duties with success until his death on
25 January 1877. He was made a
C.M.G. in
1872. One of his brothers, W. P. Dutton, engaged in sealing at
Portland Bay between 1828 and 1838, and it is sometimes claimed that he was an earlier settler of
Victoria than the
Hentys. Another brother
F. H. Dutton, made a large fortune as a
squatter in South Australia.
*
Parliament of South Australia - Dutton*The South Australian Register and The South Australian Advertiser, 29 January 1877;
*F. Dutton, South Australia and its Mines;
*P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.
