Australian Dictionary of Biography

William Inglis (1832-1896), auctioneer and stock agent, was born on 8 March 1832 in Sydney, eldest son of Scottish Presbyterian parents Thomas Inglis (1791-1874), merchant, and his wife Catherine, née Ross. Thomas had arrived in Sydney with his wife in 1830 as agent of the Australian Co. of Edinburgh and received a land grant, Craigend, at The Oaks in the Camden-Picton area. After five years in whaling pursuits and time on the Ovens goldfield in Victoria, William returned to Craigend, where on 3 March 1858 he married with Anglican rites Flora McKinnon from a neighbouring property, Montpelier. Their eldest son John Thomas (1859-1914) was born on 22 March 1859.

In 1867 William Inglis and Joseph, brother of Edward Butler, began an auctioneering and produce agency at 793 George Street, Sydney. Butler left the partnership after ten years, and in 1882 William began a 'horse bazaar' between Castlereagh and Pitt streets. Horse sales were held on the ground floor and the vehicles and harness areas were above, accessible by a ramp. (The local test of a draught horse was to pull a one-ton load from Sussex Street up Druitt Street to Inglis's bazaar.)

William Inglis always conducted auctions wearing a top hat, which became his trademark. A justice of the peace, he stood unsuccessfully as a protectionist candidate for Balmain in February 1899. In July 1895 he was banqueted in Sydney by a large number of his friends and customers and presented with a framed illuminated address. He died at his residence, Annesley, Balmain Road, Leichhardt, on 12 January 1896, survived by his wife, nine sons and three daughters, and was buried with Congregational forms in Rookwood cemetery. His estate was sworn for probate at under £38,724.

His son John, who had been taken into the partnership in 1884 and had married Australia Renwick in Sydney in 1885, took control of William Inglis & Son. In 1905 the firm bought the goodwill of T. S. Clibborn's bloodstock business, carrying out its earliest yearling sales with that firm; in 1906 it first conducted its own sale at Tom Payten's property, Newmarket, at Randwick. John died on 26 September 1914. His son Arthur Reginald (1890-1957), known as Reg, who had been born on 10 February 1890 at Drummoyne, became managing director. Newmarket was purchased in 1918 and was gradually expanded to provide stable accommodation for about 600 horses. In 1921 the firm became a limited company, and in 1934, after buying out a competitor, Henry Chisholm & Co. Pty Ltd, it became the undisputed leader in bloodstock auctioneering in Australia. Reg died on 10 December 1957. The family auctioneering tradition continued: his son John (b.1917) followed, and a nephew Reginald Stewart Inglis (b.1952) succeeded him. The catalogue of William Inglis & Co. Pty Ltd became renowned for its detail and integrity, and its yearling sale at Randwick during Easter was one of the most important in Australasia.

William Inglis's second son William (1864-1935), born on 24 August 1864, worked for his father for ten years before starting business on his own in the 1890s as an auctioneer and produce merchant in Sydney. He married South African-born Annie Elizabeth Gavey in 1894; they were later divorced. He took over Craigend in 1920 and married Linda Annie Sharp that year. Predeceased by her, William junior died on 10 November 1935; a son by his first marriage and a son and daughter by his second survived him. Craigend was still farmed by his family 170 years after the original grant.