1880 Appointment of Sir Saul Samuel to the Position of Agent… - Autographs, Ceramics, Jewellery, Judaica, Posters and Toys - Leski Auctions Pty. Ltd.

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1880 Appointment of Sir Saul Samuel to the Position of Agent General For New South Wales in London A large parchment document 'To Saul Samuel, Esquire, C.M.G.' appointing Samuel as Agent General for New South Wales, dated 17th August 1880 and signed by Lord Augustus Loftus [1817-1904, Governor of New South Wales] and Henry Parkes [1815-1896, Premier of New South Wales, the 'Father of Federation'] along with [Richard] Critchett Walker Principal Under Secretary. It has the New South Wales seal. Superb condition. Samuel, Sir Saul (1820-1900), merchant and politician, was born on 2 November 1820 in London, the posthumous son of Sampson Samuel and his wife Lydia, nee Lyons. In 1832 his mother decided to join her brother Samuel Lyons and eldest son Lewis in New South Wales and arrived with Saul in The Brothers on 25 August. He was educated at W. T. Cape's school and at his Sydney College. In 1837 he joined the Sydney counting-house of his uncles A. and S. Lyons. With his brother Lewis he later formed the mercantile firm of L. and S. Samuel with a branch at Bathurst. By 1841 he had taken up 190,000 acres (76,891 ha) on the Macquarie River. He was the first Jew to become a magistrate, in 1846. Although successful, he abandoned pastoral pursuits after the discovery of gold in 1851 and became a director of several companies operating in Bathurst. In 1856 he explored the feasibility of laying an electric telegraph line to Belvoir, the northern terminus in Victoria. On 16 December 1857 he married Henrietta Matilda Goldsmith-Levien (d.1864). Favouring full representative government, in 1854-56 Samuel represented the Counties of Roxburgh and Wellington in the Legislative Council, and Orange in 1859-60 in the new Legislative Assembly. He was the first Jewish legislator in New South Wales. Described as a practical, independent and liberal politician, from 27 October to 8 March 1860 he was colonial treasurer under William Forster and the first Jew to become a minister of the Crown. In 1862-69 he represented Wellington and in 1869-72. Orange. In 1872 he held East Sydney until June when he was appointed to the Legislative Council where he sat until 1880. In 1865 Samuel had become colonial treasurer under Charles Cowper, but resigned in 1866 after his budget proposals for trade licences and increased duties on tea and sugar had been defeated. In 1868 Samuel became treasurer under John Robertson and continued under Cowper in 1870. In 1869-70 he opposed Governor Belmore's reforms of public expenditure methods, though he assisted him by reducing recommendations to the Executive Council to sanction payments in anticipation of Appropriation Acts. In 1870 he attended the Intercolonial Conference in Melbourne and proposed intercolonial free trade to settle the border customs dispute. Samuel hoped to abolish ad valorem duties but his plans for a ta x on incomes of over £200 were bitterly contested and led to the downfall of the government in December. In 1872-75 Samuel was postmaster-general and vice-president of the Executive Council and Henry Parkes's government representative in the Legislative Council; he also acted as treasurer in 1872. He was again postmaster-general and government representative under Parkes in 1877 and in 1878-80. In 1873 he visited New Zealand, the United States and England and negotiated a subsidized mail service from England to Australia via San Francisco. In 1874 as postmaster-general he opened the new General Post Office in Martin Place. Active in the Jewish community, in the 1840s Samuel had contributed to the London Voice of Jacob; he was a member of the board of management of the York Street Synagogue and remained loyal to it after it divided. He was a trustee of the Jewish section of the Devonshire Street cemetery and from 1871 chairman of the Sydney Hebrew Certified Denominational School Board. On 26 January 1875 he laid the foundation stone for the Great Synagogue, Elizabeth Street, and was later its president. He was

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