Background
The son of silk merchant John Bateman, John Wesley Bateman was born in London on 15 December 1824.
The son of silk merchant John Bateman, John Wesley Bateman was born in London on 15 December 1824.
In 1830 the Bateman family emigrated to Western Australia on board the Medina, settling in Fremantle, where John Bateman Snr established himself as general store owner, whaler and postmaster. John Snr had three sons, Walter, John Wesley and Charles. Charles died in Indonesia on the way out to Australia.
He also had six daughters.
Walter Bateman also succeeded his mother as postmaster from April 1855 to November 1861, served on the Town Trust in 1860, 1862, and 1864-1865, and was chosen in Fremantle"s first parliamentary election for nomination to the Legislative Council, where he sat from 1868 to 1870. John Bateman took no active role in politics, but throughout his long life zealously pushed Fremantle"s claims as a harbour, having an unrivalled knowledge of the nearby coast.
He served on a committee for a new jetty in 1871, and was one of the few witnesses called by the 1892 select committee on the development of Fremantle Harbour. His descendants became prominent shareholders in the firm of J. & West. Bateman.
As exporters of timber, sandalwood and horses, and importers of sugar and other tropical produce, the firm developed a considerable trade between Fremantle and south-east Asia during the century.
Until the coming of steamships in 1888, the firm had a monopoly of the coastal trade to the north-west and the Kimberley, and continued to supply many sheep and cattle stations with stores and cr well into the twentieth century.
John Wesley Bateman was a member of the Fremantle Town Council between 1880 and 1882, and president of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce from 1895 to 1900, at a time when the discovery of gold and the construction of an artificial harbour at Fremantle brought unparalleled expansion to business in the port.
