George Cotton

George Witherage Cotton (1821–1892) was a South Australian land dealer and Member of the South Australian Legislative Council. He was especially notable for being a champion of a scheme in South Australia to put working men onto small blocks of land (around 20 acres) on which they could carry out agricultural production. Life Cotton was born on 4 February 1821 at Staplehurst in Kent, England to Samuel and Lydia Cotton. He was apprenticed to a carpenter and studied at Wesley College, Sheffield for two years. After working in London he migrated with his wife, Mary Ann (Jull), and his parents to South Australia aboard the barque Athenian, arriving 5 March, 1849. His wife and son (William Jull Cotton) died shortly after their arrival and later in 1849 he married Elizabeth Mitchell with whom he had nine children. Upon arriving in South Australia, Cotton worked as a carpenter at Willunga and store-keeper on Hindmarsh Island. He then moved to Adelaide in 1862 and went into business as a land agent, becoming quite wealthy. In 1865 Cotton called a meeting of laymen of the Wesleyan Church to consider the purchase of a site for a Wesleyan college in Adelaide. This was to become Prince Alfred College, one of the most prominent schools in Adelaide, and Cotton was the founding Secretary, a position he held for twenty years. In 1875, he was the first to import typewriters to Australia.