Samuel Charles (1818 - 1909), by unknown photographer, courtesy of Wollongong City Library and the Illawarra Historical Society. P03\P03780. .Image Details

CHARLES, SAMUEL (1818-1909), mariner, dairy farmer and politician, known to contemporaries as Captain Charles, was born at Ballyronan, County Londonderry, Ireland, and baptized on 2 August 1818, son of Richard Charles, sergeant-major in the 5th Dragoons who served in the Peninsular war and at Waterloo, and his wife Margaret, née Hull. Samuel had a commercial education but was early attracted by the sea. He became a shipwright and served on coastal ships. In the early 1840s the Irish contractor, William Dargan, appointed him master of the Ulster Canal and Railway Co.'s steamer and manager of its dockyards.

Charles arrived in Sydney from Ireland in 1844, resumed his seafaring career in the coastal trade until 1846 when he finished building a brigantine. He then engaged in trading in the ...

Read more at the source website

Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography