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William Ayshford Sanford
William Ayshford Sanford, DL (1818–28 October 1902) was a landowner, naturalist and Liberal Party politician, who served as Colonial Secretary of Western Australia from 1852 to 1855.
Sanford was born in 1818, the son of Edward Ayshford Sanford, a Member of Parliament for Somerset, by his first wife Henrietta Langham, daughter of Sir William Langham, 8th Baronet. The family had owned Nynehead Court in Somerset since 1599, and William Ayshford Sanford succeeded to the estate on the death of his father in 1871. He was Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset.
He served as Colonial Secretary of WA from 1852 to 1855, and designed the Perth Boys School, the Fremantle Boys Schools, etc.
His brother Henry was in charge of the convict hiring depot at Port Gregory (Lynton).
NLA:
William Ayshford Sanford (1818-1902) was the son of Edward Sanford and his wife Henrietta (d. 1836) of Nynehead Court, Wellington, Somerset. The Sanford Family had owned Nynehead Court since 1599. William was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. In August 1851 he was appointed Colonial Secretary of Western Australia. He arrived in Perth on the barque Anna Robertson in December 1851. As Colonial Secretary, he was the most senior official in the colony under the governor, Captain Charles Fitzgerald. He resigned in July 1855 and returned to England, where he married Sarah Seymour in 1857. On the death of his father in 1871, Sanford inherited the family estates in Somerset and Devon. He was Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset. He took a great interest in the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society and was president of the Somerset Agricultural Association. His daughter Mary married Field Marshal Paul Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen.
References and Links
Austin, R. 1855, 'Commanding an Expedition Sent by the Government To Explore the Interior of Western Australia…’, Journal of Assistant-Surveyor R. Austin.
'The Heritage of Australia’, Melbourne, Vic : Australian Heritage Commission, 1981.
Erickson, Rica 1988, The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians pre 1829-1888, Nedlands, Western Australia.
Hasluck, Alexandra 1973, Royal Engineer: A Life of Sir Edmund DuCane, Cremorne, New South Wales.
Kerr, E.J. 1978, 'Designing a Colonial Church: Church Architecture in New South Wales 1788-1888’, York, England, UK : British Theses-In-Print, DPhil York.
Venn, R. ed. 1954, Wollaston’s Albany Journals, Perth, WA.
Wikipedia page, from which most of the above comes, including all the references, but not the photo, which was taken by Sanford's son, who died in 1923.
NLA.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 24 April, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/sanordwilliamayshford.html (it was last updated on 15 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.