Charles Hervey Bagot, often referred to as "Captain Bagot", was an Irish-born South Australian pastoralist, mine owner and parliamentarian, and was the ancestor of a number of notable South Australian citizens.
History
Bagot was born in Nurney in County Kildare, Ireland, son of Christopher Bagot and Elizabeth, née Clibborn. He joined the British Army in 1805 and was gazetted to the 87th Foot Regiment. He is reported as having served with distinction in India during the Mahratta War and was promoted to the rank of Captain. About the year 1819 he was retired on half pay to Ennis in County Clare, where he was appointed to the Commission of the Peace, and generally lived the life of a country gentleman. In 1840 he emigrated to South Australia on the Birman with his wife Mary, née MacCarthy, and their five children, arriving at Port Adelaide on 17 December 1840.
Pastoralist
Around 1840 Bagot selected a section of at Koonunga on the River Light, on which he ran sheep in partnership with Frederick Hansborough Dutton. The partnership was dissolved in 1843 and Dutton took the lease on another property near Kapunda, which he named Anlaby for a village in Yorkshire. Bagot was the first to use John Ridley's reaping machine.
Copper mining
Towards the end of 1842 his youngest son Charles Samuel Bagot came across mineral specimens on his father's property near the site of the present Kapunda. Around the same time Francis Stacker Dutton found similar outcrops on nearby Anlaby, which he was developing with his brother Frederick Hansborough Dutton. When the Dutton brothers took steps to secure the land around this discovery, they learned of Bagot's find and together got 80 acres surveyed, tendered for it in the Government Gazette, and bought it for the fixed Government price for "waste lands" at £1 an acre. Later, when a second section was put up for auction, Dutton and Bagot had to bid up to £2,210 to secure it. They secured a mining lease, for which, with one Ravenshaw, he floated a company to work what was in 1844 the first copper mine in Australia, and lasted until 1877.
Politics
Bagot was appointed as Member of the South Australian Legislative Council on 1 July 1844 then was elected to the Assembly seat of Light 12 July 1851 until resigning on 7 July 1853 and for the Legislative Council again, in the days when the whole colony voted as one electorate on 9 March 1857, serving until 27 March 1861 and on 1 March 1865 until 29 January 1869. When he resigned in 1853, John Tuthill Bagot, a distant relation, perhaps a nephew, was elected in his place. In the first council Bagot distinguished himself by his opposition to Colonel Robe's proposals for endowing selected religious bodies and for imposing a royalty on minerals.
Christopher Michael Bagot Sr. married John Cliffe Watts's eldest daughter, Margaret Elizabeth on 6 August 1846. They died at Koonunga and Nurney House, Stanley Street, North Adelaide respectively.
Mary Elizabeth Bagot married William Jacob at Castle Bagot in Ireland on 31 August 1842. and died at 192 Barton Terrace, North Adelaide. William, who arrived on the Rapid in 1836, was a draftsman with Col. William Light and ran a farm "Morooroo" of 1,100 acres near Rowland Flat and the brother of pioneer Ann Jacob; Jacobs Creek is named for them.
Edward Meade "Ned" Bagot married Mary Pettman on 1 August 1853. He married again, to the widow Anne Smith, née Walworth, on 30 July 1857. Anne had at least one child, James Churchill-Smith by her previous marriage, whom Ned adopted.
Charlotte Owen Bagot married Captain William H. Maturin C.B. on 2 October 1845
Sir Charles Samuel Bagot moved to London, became a barrister, married Lucy Francisca Hornby on 29 July 1851 in Lancaster and became Commissioner in Lunacy. He may have been the Charles S. Bagot of East Sheen who adopted Beatrice, the daughter of Lt. Col. C. H. Bagot R.E.
;Another Bagot line Charles Bagot of Kilcoursey House, Kings County, Ireland, who also had a number of descendants in South Australia, may have been a brother of Charles Hervey Bagot. He married Anna Tuthill, died in Ireland. Charles Bagot of Kilcoursey House, Kings County married Anna Tuthill; died in Ireland
Charles Emilius Bagot M.D. died in Ireland
John Tuthill Bagot MLC barrister and MLC for Light. Married Eliza Meyler on 1 June 1848 in Dublin. Died at "Yallum", Buxton Street, home of C. F. Wells. He has been described as a nephew of Charles Hervey Bagot.
Ulysses North Bagot married Rachel Meyler in 1850
Anna Frances Bagot married George Augustus Labatt in 1853, residence at Brougham Place.
Eliza Mary Bagot
Daniel W. W. Bagot, youngest son, died at his father's house "Kilcoursey", King's County, Ireland
