Barker, Thomas

Thomas Barker was born in Soho, London on 24 March 1799, the son of James Barker and Mary (born Schuldham). Barker arrived in Sydney aboard the Earl Spencer in October 1813, under the care of James Dickson, a mechanical engineer to whom he had been articled by his guardian after the death of his parents. Dickson brought with him the first steam engine in Australia, which was installed in a flour mill he established at the Darling Harbour end of Goulburn Street, Sydney.

Barker married Dickson's niece Joanna in 1823, and in the same year constructed his first steam driven flour mill, on a six acre grant at the corner of Sussex and Bathurst Street. Barker was granted 800 acres at Yass in 1824 and by the 1830's had acquired more land at Camden and on the Goulburn Plains. In 1826 Barker constructed two windmills in Macleay Street, Darlinghurst, and in the early 1832 or 1833 built his own Sydney residence, 'Roslyn Hall' in Macleay Street, Darlinghurst.

At the end of 1834 Barker retired from the flour milling business, letting the mill to his brother James. He voyaged to England with his wife in 1837; when he returned in 1840 he re-entered the flour milling business in partnership with his brother, the two of them trading as Barker & Co. In the 1850's the business was taken over by his nephews, George, Francis, and William, the sons of James.

In 1842 Barker had established a tweed factory on the Sussex Street mill site, with Donald Larnach as his partner. In 1852 OB Ebsworth was taken into the partnership, and, after selling out in 1854, Ebsworth repurchased the whole of the tweed milling business in 1862. After Ebsworth's death in 1870 Barker reacquired the business but eventually sold it to John Vicars in 1874.

In 1851 Joanna died, and in 1857 Barker married Katherine Gray, by whom he had one son, Thomas Charles (1863-1940). In 1858 Barker built a new house, Maryland, on his land at Bringelly, selling Rosyln Hall about 1861 and residing permanently at Maryland.

Barker's commercial and agricultural pursuits had made him a wealthy man, in 1834 alone, for instance, he is said to have made twenty thousand pounds, and he involved himself energetically in public affairs. He was a founder, Director, and Chairman of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, a founder and Director of the Royal Exchange, and a trustee of the Savings Bank of NSW for nearly forty years. He was a founder of the Asylum for Destitute Children, a Trustee of the Sydney Bethel Union, and Vice-President of the Female Refuge Society. He was active in promoting railways in the colony, helping to finance the first survey for a line between Sydney and Goulburn, and being made a Director and President of the Sydney Railway Company.

He was appointed a magistrate in 1834, and was honorary secretary of a committee that agitated for a new constitution for the colony. He was made a member of the Legislative Council in 1853 and remained there until 1856, when he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the representative of the counties of Gloucester and Macquarie, a position he retained until the end of 1857.

Thomas Barker was particularly active in the sphere of education. He was elected to the Council of the Australian College in 1831, and in 1848 became a member of the Denominational School Board. He was also appointed a Council member of the Sydney College, a Trustee of the Sydney Grammar School, and a Trustee of the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts. After the establishment of the University of Sydney Barker donated one thousand pounds to be used for a scholarship in mathematics, the first benefaction to the new University. In 1857 he donated a further one hundred pounds to be used for a side window in the Great Hall of the University. A portrait of Barker was hung in the Great Hall in the mid-1850's. The University also has a medallion profile of Barker done by Thomas Woolner.

Barker died at Maryland on 12 March 1875 and was buried in the churchyard of St Stephen's Church at Camden.