Buchanan, William

BUCHANAN, William(1798–1885) was born at Mersheen, Wexford, Ireland, son of Andrew Buchanan, a captain in the Royal Artillery, and Ellen Curtis, and an uncle of pioneering pastoralists, Nathaniel (Nat) ((1826–1901) and William Frederick Buchanan (1824–1911), sons of William’s brother Charles. When William arrived at Sydney on the Mangles in 1822, his occupation was listed as assistant engineer, his role in the New South Wales Chief Engineer’s Department from 1825. In 1826, when Buchanan was enroute to Norfolk Island, the brig Wellington was seized by convicts in the second of several Norfolk Island uprisings. After it was recaptured in the Bay of Islands (NZ). Buchanan gave evidence in the convicts’ trial in Sydney. He or his colleague, Joshua THORPE, Superintendent of Public Works, may have drawn plans requested by the Civil Engineer, William DUMARESQ, for the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, including the Prisoners’ Barracks which is similar to Buchanan’s design of 1827 for Norfolk Island. He was Superintendent of Works at Liverpool in 1827, Newcastle in 1829-31 and Clerk of Works at Sydney until he transferred in 1832 to the Commissariat Department as Clerk of Works for Military and Convict Buildings under Ambrose HALLEN. From 1838 he was Surveyor of Buildings for Sydney until the position was abolished in 1846 with Buchanan unsuccessfully seeking compensation. Subsequently Buchanan was a grazier in the Hunter River and Muswellbrook. He married Elizabeth Lucas in 1842 at Sydney where he died.