The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Eliott, Gilbert

1372985The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Eliott, GilbertPhilip Mennell

Eliott, Gilbert, C.M.G., sometime Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Queensland, was third son of Sir William Eliott, the 6th Bart. of that name, of Stobs, Roxburghshire. He was born in 1796, and married, in 1830, Isabella Lucy, daughter of the Rev. Robert Eliott, vicar of Askham (who died in 1871). He emigrated to Queensland, and was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of that colony in April 1860, as member for Wide Bay. On the meeting of the House in May he was elected the first Speaker, and, having been thrice successively re-elected in the next three Parliaments, voluntarily retired in Nov. 1870, when he was created C.M.G. He died on June 30th, 1871. Mr. Eliott's eldest son, Gilbert William, was a police magistrate in Queensland from 1865 to 1878; and, by his marriage with Jane Penelope, daughter of Thomas Thomson, of Tasmania, had a son, Gilbert Francis Eliott, born in 1859, who is Engineer of Harbours and Rivers for Northern Queensland, and has been resident at Townsville since 1880.