My first cousin four times removed, William Halse Gatty Jones, lived a life that stretched across two hemispheres and mirrored the restless energy of the nineteenth century. Born in London on 8 March 1825, he began as a City solicitor, made his fortune amid the Australian gold rush, and returned to Wales to become a landed country gentleman—linking the commercial dynamism of Victorian Britain with the quiet dignity of Merionethshire.
London Origins
The eldest son of William Jones of Glandwr Hall near Barmouth, Gatty (as he was known) was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School and apprenticed in his father’s legal firm. By his early twenties he was a Freeman of the City of London through the ancient Skinners’ Company and a qualified solicitor, moving with ease in both the Welsh émigré circles of the capital and the powerful livery companies that governed its civic life.
To the Edge of Empire
Ambition and curiosity soon carried him further. In 1853 he embarked on a four-month voyage to Melbourne, arriving just as the Victorian goldfields were transforming a colonial outpost into one of the British Empire’s most exciting cities. Admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1854, he quickly built a thriving legal practice serving miners, merchants, and speculative investors.
Gatty helped found the Law Institute of Victoria in 1859, the colony’s first professional legal association, and joined the convivial “Bread and Cheese Club,” a lawyers’ society that doubled as a debating circle. Beyond the law he was a sportsman and civic booster, sitting on the committee of the Melbourne Cricket Club and taking a leading role in St David’s Day celebrations for the city’s Welsh community.
A Colonial Politician
Politics soon followed. In 1860 he won election to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the rural constituency of Evelyn as an Independent, advocating protective tariffs and secular education—forward-looking positions shaped by both colonial realities and his Welsh Nonconformist heritage. Even a serious carriage accident in 1861, which shattered his leg, did not end his career; he returned to the chamber on crutches to an ovation.
Homecoming and Welsh Estate
After a decade of success he sold his Australian interests and came home in 1863. Back in London he resumed practice, became a Commissioner for Oaths (1867), and rose to Master of the Skinners’ Company (1869–1871), one of the City’s highest civic honours. With his eldest son he later founded the firm W. H. Gatty Jones & Son, which prospered until his retirement in the 1890s.
Marriage had already anchored him in Wales. In 1849 he wed Annie Laura Jones (1831-1892), heiress of the Borthwnog estate near Barmouth, uniting two prominent Merionethshire families. Over the years he purchased additional farms and woodlands until the combined Borthwnog–Glandwr estate stretched to nearly 3,000 acres of coastal and upland terrain. Like many Victorian squires he served as a Justice of the Peace, sponsored agricultural shows, and donated land for the Bontddu Mission Church, blending London polish with rural responsibility.
Final Years and Legacy
William Halse Gatty Jones died at Glandwr Hall on 16 September 1897 after a stroke. His funeral at Llanaber drew farmers, magistrates, and neighbours alike—a testament to the respect he commanded on both sides of his transcontinental life.
For me, he is more than a colourful ancestor. Gatty Jones embodies the outward-looking spirit of nineteenth-century Wales: a man who proved that a family rooted in the sheep pastures of Merioneth could help shape a young Australian colony, steer legislation in Melbourne, and return home to steward the land of his forebears. His story reminds us that even the most rural Welsh lineages were never as isolated as legend suggests.
This article is adapted from research first published in Old Llyfnant Valley Farming Families and forms part of my continuing exploration of the Jones and Davies families of mid-Wales.
Antony David Davies FRSA FRAS AFRHistS MCMI MIoL 