Francis William Stokes was a pastoralist and politician in the colony of South Australia.
Background
Stokes was a son of the Review John Stokes, Vicar of Cobham and Rector of Milton, Kent, and emigrated to South Australia on the British Empire in 1850, and after staying a few months in the city undertook the management of a station for Anstey & Giles.
Career
He founded the firm of Grant & Stokes to run Coonatto (Konetta ?) Station, and were also associated with the Wellington Station in which Sir William Jervois, was later interested. Stokes also had an interest in the Willowie Pastoral Company. He represented the seat of Mount Barker in the House of Assembly from April 1878 to April 1881.
He did not seek re-election and paid a visit to England, but during the return voyage he received a paralytic stroke while on the Red Sea.
On 17 April 1861 Stokes married Emily Rebecca Giles (1836 – 24 January 1929), a daughter of William Giles. They had no children.
C. East. Stokes, of Portuguese Augusta then Prospect, and F. H. Stokes, of South-terrace were nephews.