Obituaries Australia

On the 13th instant, Mr Thomas Dangar, formerly of Scone, Upper Hunter, breathed his last at his residence, Lavender Bay, St. Leonards, at the ripe age of 70 years. He was the last of the family of the name of which there were seven, and followed his elder brother, Mr. Henry Dangar, of Neotsfield, Singleton, and Mr. W. Dangar, of Touronville, near Scone, out to Australia, landing in Sydney on the 13th March, 1825 (and subsequently the remaining members of the family came, all a hardy and stalwart race.) He was engaged in a mercantile house in Sydney for some years. In 1834 he commenced business in West Maitland, and shortly afterwards settled at Scone, then known as Redbank or Invermein, and of which place he was the pioneer in business. In conjunction with his store at Scone he opened a branch at Muswellbrook. This he afterwards disposed of to Mr. Richard Carey Dangar, one of his younger brothers. About 1860 be gave up his business, and left Scone for Sydney. Few residents of the Hunter River district possessed a more intimate knowledge of the trade of the Northern part of the colony than Mr. Dangar. To those who were accustomed to travel up the country in the "olden time" he was ever kind, especially to new comers. From him they could always obtain information of a most reliable kind of the whereabouts of persons engaged, for hundreds of miles round, in pastoral and other pursuits. Notwithstanding the attention required in a large country business, he never forgot his duties as a colonist in endeavours to better the condition of his order; and to the public weal he gave a good deal of time. When Mr. (now Sir John) Robertson took up his abode at Yarrundi, and in his early battles for progressive reform, Mr. Dangar was not behindhand in affording valuable assistance to the Liberal cause in conjunction with Mr. Robertson ; and when the latter resigned his seat for the Upper Hunter, and was appointed to the Legislative Council to push the Land Bill through, Mr. Dangar was chosen to fill the vacancy, and represented that electorate till the general election in December, 1864, when he was succeeded by Mr. James White, of Edinglassie. Since then he ceased to trouble about public matters, and has lived quietly near Sydney. The Dangar family came from St. Neot, in Cornwall, where Mr. T. Dangar was born on the 13th March, 1808 (strange coincidence-same day and month of birth, arrival in the colony, and death). He was married three times, and leaves a widow. His only son by the first marriage is Mr. Thomas G. Dangar, the popular member for the Gwydir. The remains of the deceased gentleman were taken to Scone, followed by a large number of mourners, and deposited in the family vault, with those of his late brother, Mr. John Dangar, and other relatives.