Obituaries Australia

Simeon Lord, c.1830

State Library of New South Wales, 440244

It becomes our painful duty to record the death of Simeon Lord, Esq., at his residence, Botany Lodge, on the 29th inst., aged 69 –one of the very few of this colony, whose hospitable table for the last forty years has over been open to the British officer or invalid of India, the captains of merchant ships from all parts, as well the needy and often ungrateful emigrant, whether at Botany, or at Macquarie-place, which he built in 1810, then the best house in the colony. Mr. Lord was an extensive ship owner, merchant, and manufacturer of cloth, giving employment to many of the labouring classes, who adored him and his good lady, Mrs. Lord. Nor were these liberal acts the first trait in his character; he was the first, and by far the largest contributor to the benevolent institutions and every other charity in the colony; also, the very first to join that valuable institution the Sydney College, and continued to give it his support. Would there were a thousand such men! the College would then proceed in its original plans and principles. In religion Mr. Lord was of the the Church of England, but he was no bigot. The Catholic, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan, were to him all respected alike. Having reared a large family of ten children; his three daughters were married into families of the first respectability, and it was his pride to give his seven sons the best education the colony could bestow; some of whom fill the highest commercial stations in the colony, others are married and settled on his immense estates in different parts of this and the sister colony, all amply provided for, by an humble individual, who came to this colony in its infancy a mere youth, perhaps an imprudent one;–but his honest zeal, good conduct, and industry, without a single friend on his arrival redounds more to his honour, and that of his family, than if born with such a fortune as he died possessed of, he had spent it in profligacy and ruined his family.

From a Correspondent.