Freotopia > people > Higham family > Jack Higham (1856–1927)
John Joseph Higham (son of John Henry Higham and Mary Ann Phipps) was born on 14-Aug-1856 in Fremantle. He died on there 23-Jul-1927. He married Edith Elizabeth Bateman (daughter of John Bateman and Rachel White) on 05-Jan-1882 in Fremantle, where she was born on 20-Aug-1857, also dying there on 24-Jul-1929. (Ward)
John Joseph Higham (1856–1927) was the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Member for Fremantle from 1896 to 1904.
He was born in Fremantle to parents John Henry and Mary Higham, who had recently arrived in the Swan River Colony. He attended Fremantle Boys School under George Bland Humble, Bishop Hale's School, and then the Camden Collegiate School in Sydney.
In 1881 he took over from his mother as manager of the family business M. Higham and Sons.
In 1882 Higham married Edith Elizabeth Bateman; they had five sons and one daughter.
By 1886 he owned the National Hotel building [across High St from the Higham emporium].
In 1890 he was elected a West Ward councillor of Fremantle.
In 1894 his son John Henry died. The family were living on Beach Street. Another son, Arthur Edward, died in 1921. By then they had moved to Altona (57 [now 29] Fothergill [formerly John] Street).
Higham is buried at Fremantle Cemetery. (Wikipedia)
The Higham family arrived in the colony in 1853 and established a business that grew to be one of the largest in the town. The eldest son, Edward Henry, represented Fremantle in the Legislative Assembly, as did his brother, John Joseph, who for many years controlled the old firm of M. Higham and Sons. Both were public spirited members of the community. Another son, Harry [James William], became a wealthy pastoralist, [in the Ashburton district in the NW of WA] and was reported to have left an estate worth upwards of £250,000. Hitchcock, JK 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council: 104, 106.
In 1902, J.J. Higham built a house for his family at the present 29 Fothergill Street, his wife Edith having had the land transferred to her from her father, John Bateman. He died 1927 and is buried in Fremantle Cemetery at Congregational D 255.
J.J. Higham gravestone at Congregational D 255.
Many thanks to Robert Ward for an invaluable and comprehensive genealogy of the Higham family.
Brown, Patricia M 1996, The Merchant Princes of Fremantle: The Rise and Decline of a Colonial Elite 1870-1900, UWAP.
Erickson, Rica et al. 1987 (etc.), Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians, UWAP.
Higham, Geoffrey J. 1994, A Most Industrious Tradeswoman: Mary Higham, Nineteenth Century Merchant of Fremantle, Gayton Squirrel Trust, Winthrop WA.
Higham, Geoffrey 2005, 'A person of remarkable energy', Fremantle Studies, 4: 8-21.
Hitchcock, JK 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council: 104, 106.
Wikipedia page
J.J. Higham obituary, West Australian 25 July 1927
The photograph of J.J. Higham is from the Fremantle Library Local History Collection.
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