Horatio Wills

Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (born 5 October 1811, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - 1861), or Horace Wills, was an Australian pastoralist and politician. The son of a convict, sent to Australia for highway robbery, Wills is notable as being involved in several events in Australian history, as well as being the father of Thomas Wills, the inventor of Australian rules football, having a great influence on Tom's life.

'The Argus' newspaper dated Saturday 12th March 1921 page 4 records the Horatio Wills family being at Burra Burra Gundagai till around 1840. ['A Notable Pioneer. Horatio Spencer Wills' http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home] Thomas Wills, Horatio's son, was born in 1836 near Gundagai, New South Wales. [Family history states 19 August near Gundagai (reference cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 2006 | url = http://tww.id.au/fam/liza-edward/pafg03.htm#91 | title = Thomas Wentworth Wills | format = | work = An Index of Australian Wills Families: Descendants of Edward Wills | publisher = Tom Wills | accessdate = 2006-07-05)]

Wills was one of the first settlers of the Ararat district in western Victoria, Australia, at a 125,000 acre property named "Lexington" and is credited as having named nearby Mt Ararat. He hired aborigines as station hands and harvesters on his property.

In 1852, Wills sold Lexington and moved to Belle Vue in Geelong and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1855.

In 1861, Horatio moved north to Queensland, at Cullin-La-Ringo in the Nogoa region near Rockhampton. Just three weeks later, Horatio was murdered by aborigines, along with 18 others at the Cullin-La-Ringo massacre in 1861.

ources

*http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020548b.htm