# John Formby > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Formby > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Formby.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Formby > Source revision: 1331920387 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Australian shipping agent}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder|image=File:John_Formby_1902.jpg|birth_date=18 August 1819|birth_place=[Liverpool](/source/Liverpool), England|death_date=30 September 1906|death_place=[Alberton, South Australia](/source/Alberton%2C_South_Australia)|office=Mayor of [Port Adelaide](/source/City_of_Port_Adelaide)|term_start=1869|term_end=1871|office1=Chairman of the [Port Adelaide Football Club](/source/Port_Adelaide_Football_Club)|term_start1=1880|term_end1=1892 }} '''John Formby''' (18 August 1819 – 30 September 1906) was a shipping agent of [Port Adelaide](/source/Port_Adelaide), South Australia. He was mayor of [Port Adelaide](/source/City_of_Port_Adelaide) for three years 1869–1871 and chairman of the [Port Adelaide Football Club](/source/Port_Adelaide_Football_Club) 1880–1892. ==History== Formby was born in [Liverpool](/source/Liverpool), England, to John Formby and Helen Formby, née Harper, of [Maghull](/source/Maghull), near Liverpool. At some early age he left England for Tasmania, and three years later arrived at Port Adelaide from Hobart in a 40-ton schooner in 1840{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162338352 |title=Mr John Formby, S.M. |newspaper=[Adelaide Observer](/source/Adelaide_Observer) |volume=LVI |issue=3,007 |location=South Australia |date=20 May 1899 |accessdate=9 November 2025 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}} with his younger brother [William Harper Formby](/source/William_Harper_Formby), and by 1841 they were raising livestock in the [Little Para](/source/Little_Para_River) area.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71614626 |title=The Protest |newspaper=[Southern Australian](/source/Southern_Australian) |volume=IV |issue=208 |location=South Australia |date=18 May 1841 |accessdate=9 November 2025 |page=1 (Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}} It is likely his brother returned to Britain with a list of goods needed in the new colony, commodities which could readily be sold at a good profit. In May 1843 the brig ''Davidsons'' arrived at Port Adelaide with W. H. Formby in the cabin, and a great quantity of merchandise in the hold.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71617037 |title=Imports |newspaper=[The Southern Australian](/source/The_Southern_Australian) |volume=VI |issue=421 |location=South Australia |date=30 May 1843 |accessdate=8 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} Those goods which were not immediately sold were freighted by ''Davidsons'' to Hobart Town.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article73843305 |title=Advertising |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |location=South Australia |date=3 June 1843 |accessdate=8 November 2025 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Passengers in the cabin included Mr H. Formby, Mr E. Formby, Mr and Mrs Hall, Mr and Mrs Fairchild, Mrs Evans, Mr and Mrs Brooks, and Alexander Stewart, who may have been destined for Hobart, Sydney or Liverpool. Formby then returned to Britain, and for four years gained sailing experience shipping between the East and West Indies, Ceylon and India. He returned to Australia with a large schooner, which he sold in Tasmania. He then returned to South Australia, settling at Port Adelaide. He married in 1848. Like his brother, he was a devotee of the racetrack. He was secretary of the South Australian Jockey Club to 1853, quitting when he moved to Port Adelaide.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48554066 |title=Jockey Club |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XVIII |issue=2413 |location=South Australia |date=13 June 1854 |accessdate=10 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1854 a steeplechase [scratch match](/source/scratch_match) was held between Formby's Honesty and his brother's Duke of Wellington.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207017707 |title=Sporting |newspaper=[The Adelaide Times](/source/The_Adelaide_Times) |volume=VIII |issue=1275 |location=South Australia |date=8 September 1854 |accessdate=10 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} He was a judge of [bloodstock](/source/Thoroughbred) at most [Agricultural and Horticultural Society shows](/source/Royal_Adelaide_Show) from 1858{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article781849 |title=The Agriculturist |newspaper=[The South Australian Advertiser](/source/The_South_Australian_Advertiser) |volume=I |issue=20 |location=South Australia |date=3 August 1858 |accessdate=10 November 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} to 1876{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31973006 |title=Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Show |newspaper=[The South Australian Advertiser](/source/The_South_Australian_Advertiser) |location=South Australia |date=8 September 1876 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} He was in business as a shipping agent, and was highly regarded as shipper of livestock, especially horses. His technique of shipping two horses together in a [loose box](/source/loose_box) resulted in fewer casualties than any other shipper. Pairing of the animals had a calming effect, and allowed for some exercise: some horses developed a system where one would lay down while the other stood.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41399404 |title=The Hougomont |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XXXIII |issue=7086 |location=South Australia |date=26 July 1869 |accessdate=13 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} He was instrumental in the foundation of the District Council of Queenstown and Alberton.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31836277 |title=Topicsof the Day |newspaper=[The South Australian Advertiser](/source/The_South_Australian_Advertiser) |volume=VI |issue=1802 |location=South Australia |date=6 May 1864 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} His name was put forward for mayor of [Port Adelaide](/source/City_of_Port_Adelaide) in 1866 but he declined to nominate.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41030757 |title=The Mayoralty of Port Adelaide |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XXX |issue=6245 |location=South Australia |date=7 November 1866 |accessdate=10 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} After a similar deputation in 1869 he acceded, confessing that he would not be able to fill the position as effectively as his predecessor, [J. M. Sinclair](/source/J._M._Sinclair).{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197652005 |title=Latest News. |newspaper=[Evening Journal (Adelaide)](/source/Evening_Journal_(Adelaide)) |volume=I |issue=258 |location=South Australia |date=5 November 1869 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} It was during this period that the Formby Parade and Formby Steps{{efn|[A. T. Saunders](/source/A._T._Saunders) reckoned John Formby and [Henry W. Thompson](/source/Henry_W._Thompson) were the two best mayors of Port Adelaide: Sinclair he considered was the puppet of a clique of businessmen.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64178541 |title=Port Adelaide and Vicinity |newspaper=[The Register (Adelaide)](/source/The_Register_(Adelaide)) |volume=LXXXVIII |issue=25,675 |location=South Australia |date=12 April 1923 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}}} were completed as well as the North Parade. He was elected to the South Australian Chamber of Commerce in 1867.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39189850 |title=New Members |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XXXI |issue=6598 |location=South Australia |date=28 December 1867 |accessdate=12 November 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1869 he was appointed Warden of the Marine Board.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196724819 |title=The Government Gazette |newspaper=[The Evening Journal (Adelaide)](/source/The_Evening_Journal_(Adelaide)) |volume=I |issue=36 |location=South Australia |date=12 February 1869 |accessdate=13 November 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} He promoted Port Adelaide as one of the finest and safest harbours in he world, and defended the Harbor Board's decision to dredge the second bar, allowing ships to come and go without reference to the tide.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41390256 |title=The Harbour of South Australia |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XXXIII |issue=7098 |location=South Australia |date=9 August 1869 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} Formby was remembered as:
John Formby, tall and spare, with an eagle eye, and an admiral's nose, was a typical Portonian, charged with an invaluable sea experience and brimming over with sea stories. He was a plain and practical man, but a dogged fighter. Among the traditions of the Port was a controversy he had with the late Canon Green concerning ritualism. I remember that the Central Board of Health served a notice upon him to abate a nuisance, and he was prepared with evidence to show that no nuisance existed. He resisted the board from court to court, and spent hundreds of pounds by way of protest against official tyranny when compliance would have cost but a few shillings. Though technically defeated ultimately he remained unconvinced, and certainly he won a moral victory, for the board succeeded on the dictum that its fiat that a nuisance existed was final, and that evidence to the contrary, though conclusive, could not count. Mr Formby was a sailor, a business man, and a farmer, in addition to which he became Mayor, president of the Marine Board, stipendiary and special magistrate, and returning officer. And every part he played with ability and scrupulous care. He was never tired of showing how the Clyde had been dredged from a shallow stream to carry the largest shipping up to Glasgow, and what had been done to improve the Mersey for the benefit of his native city, Liverpool. He was a consistent advocate of making the inner harbor the sole harbor the mail steamers, and he would have rejoiced to have seen the magnificent fleet now at the wharfs as a fulfilment of his best dreams. Like Henry Thompson and Sir Samuel Davenport he was a fine, self-reliant, versatile colonist, who deserved the grand name of an English gentleman who regarded honor as the test of character, and who delighted in public duty, but detested self-advertising.{{cite news |author="Cit" |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article97599910 |title=Town Tattle |newspaper=[The Bunyip](/source/The_Bunyip) |issue=3,052 |location=South Australia |date=5 October 1906 |accessdate=9 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}
His shipping business became John Formby & Son with the admission in 1873 of his son Edward,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197666445 |title=Advertising |newspaper=[The Evening Journal (Adelaide)](/source/The_Evening_Journal_(Adelaide)) |volume=V |issue=1342 |location=South Australia |date=31 May 1873 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} who took over sometime around 1875, but was put out of business by competition from John Turnbull.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63648742 |title=The Adelaide Steamship Company |newspaper=[The Register (Adelaide)](/source/The_Register_(Adelaide)) |volume=LXXXVII |issue=25,395 |location=South Australia |date=19 May 1922 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}} He died at his residence in [Alberton](/source/Alberton%2C_South_Australia).{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article163078625 |title=Obituaries of the Week |newspaper=[The Observer (Adelaide)](/source/The_Observer_(Adelaide)) |volume=LXIII |issue=3,392 |location=South Australia |date=6 October 1906 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=38 |via=National Library of Australia}} ==Other interests== *Formby was a [synodsman](/source/synodsman), St Paul's (Anglican) cathedral, Port Adelaide{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1206120 |title=Diocesan Synod |newspaper=[The South Australian Advertiser](/source/The_South_Australian_Advertiser) |volume=II |issue=597 |location=South Australia |date=14 June 1860 |accessdate=10 November 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} *He was president of the Port Adelaide Cricket Club in 1865 *He was appointed [Justice of the Peace](/source/Justice_of_the_Peace) in 1867.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159510218 |title=New Justices |newspaper=[The Adelaide Observer](/source/The_Adelaide_Observer) |volume=XXV |issue=1335 |location=South Australia |date=4 May 1867 |accessdate=10 November 2025 |page=3 (Supplement) |via=National Library of Australia}} He was appointed Stipendiary Magistrate in 1889{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199871483 |title=John Formby S.M. |newspaper=[Evening Journal (Adelaide)](/source/Evening_Journal_(Adelaide)) |volume=XXI |issue=5894 |location=South Australia |date=24 July 1889 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} and Special Magistrate ==Recognition== File:John Formby Memorial Fountain 06.jpg|John Formby Memorial Fountain, corner of Lipson Street and St Vincent Street, Port Adelaide. File:John Formby Memorial Fountain 02.jpg|Information board for the John Forby Memorial Fountain. File:John Formby Memorial Fountain 04.jpg|Close up of the bird on the fountain File:John Formby Memorial Fountain 05.jpg|Close of the crest on the fountain. It reads ''Haud Pluribus Impar.'' File:John Formby Memorial Fountain 01.jpg|John Formby Memorial Fountain. Formby was commemorated in Port Adelaide by a memorial fountain, funded by public subscription and cast in Glasgow by [W. McFarlane & Co.](/source/Walter_MacFarlane_%26_Co.) and erected 27 May 1876 on the corner of North Parade and Nelson Street, later a replica was erected at the corner of St Vincent and Lipson Streets (the original is held by the Port Adelaide Historical Society). He is also memorialized in the name of Formby Crescent. ==Family== Formby married Mary Ann Hollow in 1848. Their children include: *Edward Formby (1848 – 28 May 1890) married Sarah Solway Hanson in 1872,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28683836 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[The South Australian Advertiser](/source/The_South_Australian_Advertiser) |location=South Australia |date=15 March 1872 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} He was a brewery manager, died in Broken Hill. *Charles Formby married Emily Liversay, stepdaughter of George Bailey, in 1884{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43330773 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XLVII |issue=11,246 |location=South Australia |date=29 November 1882 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} *Alfred Formby (1856–1932) married Julia Davidson in 1880.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197748848 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[Evening Journal (Adelaide)](/source/Evening_Journal_(Adelaide)) |volume=XII |issue=3637 |location=South Australia |date=14 December 1880 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} He married again, to Mary Davidson, in 1884.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43657644 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[South Australian Register](/source/South_Australian_Register) |volume=XLIX |issue=11,689 |location=South Australia |date=1 May 1884 |access-date=14 November 2025 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} He was a founder and starter 1892–1897 for the Port Adelaide Racing Club. *John Formby (1859 – 16 November 1945){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57483390 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[The Mail (Adelaide)](/source/The_Mail_(Adelaide)) |volume=34 |issue=1,747 |location=South Australia |date=17 November 1945 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} married Mary Elizabeth Foote in 1899{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207934974 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[Evening Journal (Adelaide)](/source/Evening_Journal_(Adelaide)) |volume=XXXI |issue=9047 |location=South Australia |date=6 December 1899 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} *William Formby (1862 – 21 September 1943){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92706482 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[The Chronicle (Adelaide)](/source/The_Chronicle_(Adelaide)) |volume=LXXXVI |issue=4,893 |location=South Australia |date=30 September 1943 |accessdate=14 November 2025 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}} married Nellie Rotha Smily (c. 1879 – 13 November 1943){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55871347 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[The Mail (Adelaide)](/source/The_Mail_(Adelaide)) |volume=32 |issue=1,642 |location=South Australia |date=13 November 1943 |access-date=14 November 2025 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} in 1899 == Notes == {{Notelist}} == References == {{Reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Formby, John}} Category:1819 births Category:1906 deaths Category:People from Liverpool Category:History of Port Adelaide Category:Australian sailors Category:Australian racehorse owners and breeders Category:Australian businesspeople in shipping Category:Mayors of places in South Australia Category:British emigrants to the Colony of South Australia --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Formby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Formby) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Formby?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.