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John MacPherson

John Alexander MacPherson (15 October 1833 - 17 February 1894), Australian colonial politician, was the 7th Premier of Victoria.

MacPherson was born at Limestone Plains, in New South Wales (near the present site of Canberra): he was the first Premier of Victoria born in Australia. His father was a Scottish Presbyterian pastoralist. He came to the Port Phillip District as a child with his family and was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne and Edinburgh University, where he graduated in law. He was admitted to the Victorian bar in 1866 and practised law before becoming a pastoralist near Hamilton in the Western District.

MacPherson was elected as a conservative to the Legislative Assembly for Portland in 1864, and for Dundas in 1866. In September 1869, when the liberal Premier James McCulloch resigned, MacPherson was commissioned as Premier. His government was in a weak parliamentary position and had little prospect of survival. But it did succeed in passing an effective land selection act, allowing small farmers to select land on the squatters' pastoral runs, before being defeated in the Assembly and resigning in April 1870.

MacPherson served as Chief Secretary in the third McCulloch government in 1875-77, before retiring from politics in July 1878, still aged only 44. In 1880 he returned to Britain and settled in Surrey, where he died in 1894. He married Louisa Featherstonhaugh in 1858: they had seven children.

• Geoff Browne, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
• Don Garden, Victoria: A History, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984
• Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856-1900, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972
• Raymond Wright, A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856-1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992

Premiers of Victoria

Haines | O'Shanassy | Nicholson | Heales | McCulloch | Sladen | MacPherson | Duffy | Francis | Kerferd | Berry | Service | O'Loghlen | Gillies | Munro | Shiels | Patterson | Turner | McLean | Peacock | Irvine | Bent | Murray | Watt | Elmslie | Bowser | Lawson | Prendergast | Allan | Hogan | McPherson | Argyle | Dunstan | Cain Sr | MacFarlan | Hollway | McDonald | Bolte | Hamer | Thompson | Cain Jr | Kirner | Kennett | Bracks