Background
Cargill was born in 1821. He was the son of William Cargill, one of Otago"s most prominent settlers. He was asked by his father to help with preparations for the Otago emigration scheme and returned to England in 1846.
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John Cargill
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Edward Cargill was a younger brother. John Cargill served in the Royal Navy, and he served in the West Indies on the Ringdove and the HMS Seringapatam. He retired from the navy in 1840 and by 1841, he came to Tasmania and then Portuguese Phillip.
He visited the Pacific Islands and settled in Ceylon where he had a coffee plantation.
On 24 November 1847, the Cargill family sailed for on the ship John Wickliffe, arriving at what is now Portuguese Chalmers, Otago on 23 March 1848. John Cargill took up a sheep run at the Coast where the Tokomairiro River flows into the Pacific Ocean at Toko Mouth.
He then had sheep runs at Mount Stuart, a locality inland from Milton. He was elected to the 1st Parliament as a representative of the Dunedin Country electorate, which covered rural Otago, Southland, and Fiordland.
He was re-elected for the 2nd Parliament, serving alongside his father.
The house had not been convened in 1857 and Cargill Junior. placed an advertisement in the Otago Witness on 12 September 1857, announcing his intention of handing in his resignation. The resignation became effective when the house next met later in 1858. He later served in the 4th Parliament, representing the electorate of Bruce (which had been formed out of Dunedin Country).
He also participated in Otago Provincial politics.
After running into financial difficulties, Cargill left for England in 1884, and went on to about three years later. He died in the Okanagan district of on 2 January 1898.
He is buried in the Armstrong Pioneer Cemetery just north of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. In 1849, Cargill married Sarah Charity Jones, the daughter of John Jones.
One daughter married John Harris, a son of John Hyde Harris.
On 1 September 1869, Cargill married Kate Featherston at Saint Paul"s cathedral in Wellington. They had three children, of whom two sons survived their childhood.
Membership
She was the third daughter of his fellow member of parliament and current Superintendent of Wellington Province, Isaac Featherston.
