George Matcham Pitt, stock & station agent was born on 16th February 1814 at Richmond, New South Wales, son of Thomas Matcham Pitt (d.1821), farmer and Hawkesbury pioneer, and his wife Eliza, nee Laycock. He was a grandson of Mary Pitt, nee Matcham, a connection of Lord Nelson, who had arrived in December 1801 as a free settler in the "Canada" and received a 100 acre land grant at Mulgrave Place, Richmond, on 1st March 1802. Her daughters Susannah and Ester married William Faithful and James Wilshire. Pitt was one of the first white men to explore the new country in the Gwydir District and in 1848 held the 72,000 acre "Coorar" station where he lived. In the 1850�s he held Lower Gerawhey in the Wellington District and in the 1860�s held five runs with Thomas Sullivan at Moree and later on the lower Macquarie.
In the early 1860�s Pitt established a stock and station agency business with Sullivan; in 1870 it became G.M.Pitt & Son and in 1879 Pitt, Son & Badgery when Henry Septimus Badgery was admitted to partnership. In June 1888 a limited company with authorized capital of 100,000 Pounds was formed to acquire the firm�s business for 40,000 Pounds and Pitt was chairman of the new company under the same style untill 1896. At first Pitt had sold stock in private saleyards on the Western Road, beyond Parramatta and at Homebush, Petersham and Annandale, but in February 1878 he told a Legislative Assembly committee that public yards, preferably at Homebush, were desirable to protect both the trade and the public. He also strongly opposed the country killing of meat for the Sydney market.
Pitt lived at "Fairlight", Manly for a time and later at North Sydney; he became an alderman of East St Leonards in 1878 and was mayor in 1879-83. Interested in politics, he often wrote short letters to the press on current issues. He was of the hardy stock of pioneers, with a breezy and genial disposition and reputedly �a voice like thunder�. Largely self-educated, he had a good memory and read widely: Burns and Shakespeare were his favourite authors and he had the habit of clinching his arguments with apt quotations, especially from Burns. He was popular, generous to the poor, and in 1885 donated 100 pound to the Patriotic Fund for the Sudan contingent. He served on the council of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales.
Pitt died of chronic Bright�s disease at his residence "Holbrook", Carabella Street, North Sydney, on 12 October 1896 and was buried in St Peter�s Church of England cemetery, Richmond. Probate of his estate was sworn at under 11,832 pound. At Windsor on 22 September 1835 he had married Julia Johnson (1815-1886); of their nine sons and three daughters, six sons and a daughter survived him. A daughter, Julia Eliza, had married his partner H.S.Badgery in 1869.
TAKEN FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY |
