Horatio Wills

Who was Horatio Wills?

Horatio Spencer Howe Wills was an Australian pastoralist and politician. Born in Sydney, the son of a convict sent to Australia for highway robbery, Wills is notable as being involved in several events in Australian history. He was also the father of Thomas Wills, the inventor of Australian rules football.

'The Argus newspaper dated Saturday 12 March 1921 page 4 records the Horatio Wills family being at Burra Burra Gundagai till around 1840. Thomas Wills, Horatio's son, was born in 1836 near Gundagai, New South Wales.

Wills was one of the first settlers of the Ararat district in western Victoria, Australia, at a 125,000-acre property named Lexington near Moyston. Wills intended to build a house on the property which was finally completed in 1845. While at Lexington he is credited as having named nearby Mount Ararat. He hired aborigines as station hands and harvesters on his property.

In 1852, Wills sold Lexington and moved to Belle Vue in Geelong. Wills and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Grant in January 1855; and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for South Grant in November 1856, a position he held until August 1859.