The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Macdonald, James William
Macdonald, James William, son of the late Captain Archibald Macdonald, of 10th Hussars, and grandson of the first Lord Macdonald, in the peerage of Ireland, who claimed descent from the Lord of the Isles. He was born in 1811, and emigrated, in 1839, to South Australia, where he settled in the Sturt district. In 1841 he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands, and in 1844-5 was Colonial Treasurer. After acting as Visiting Magistrate in the north, he was for a number of years Magistrate at Burra, and ultimately Commissioner of Insolvency for four years. Retiring on a pension, he resided at the Sturt till 1880, when he returned to England, where he died in the suburbs of London, on Dec. 1st, 1881.