Family background
George Wells was born on 7 August 1832 at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, son of George Wells. He married Sarah Goddard at Scots Church Sydney on 29 October 1855. He died at Glebe on 23 October 1909, aged 77 years. Sarah Wells died at Homebush on 12 June 1907, aged 72 years.
Occupation & interests
Wells was a auctioneer and commission agent. At ten years of age in 1842, Wells set out on the life of a seafarer for nine years, and then settled in Sydney in 1851. He rented premisees at May Street Ultimo, conducted a produce business in Market Street and acquired a livestock auctioneer’s licence, and moved to Forest Lodge in 1870. He traded as George Wells & Matthews, commission agents, at the Corn Exchange from 1887 to 1901. In 1909 was the oldest livestock auctioneer in NSW. Wells had been appointed a JP and magistrate in 1878.
Community activity
Wells was widely respected in the Glebe area. Using his skills as an auctioneer, Wells chaired the first parliamentary campaign meetings for Michael Chapman in 1883, and the parliamentary campaign for Percy Lucas in 1889.
Local government service
Wells was an alderman on Glebe Council from 1878 to 1883. As the building boom of the 1880s gathered momentum, Glebe Council first went into debt in 1883 as it embarked on major local improvements. Wells, as part of Council’s improvement committee, reported on the metalling of St Johns Road, kerbing and guttering Short Steet and Derwent Street together with considering the appropriateness of charging ratepayers sixpence per yard for tar-paving the footpaths of the municipality.
References
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 October 1878, p. 2
Sydney Morning Herald, 2 February 1881, p. 11
Sydney Morning Herald ,11 September 1880 p. 6
Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 1882, p. 3
Australian Town and Country Journal, 30 November 1878, p. 14
Australian Town and Country Journal, 12 August 1903, p. 27, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page5353037
Sydney Morning Herald, 13 June 1907, p. 6
Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 1909, p. 6