Frederick Hansborough Dutton was a pastoralist and politician in the colony of South Australia.
Career
Dutton first arrived in South Australia from New South Wales by ship around the beginning of 1841, having, in partnership with Captain John Finnis, had some 12,000 sheep brought overland, which they offered for sale in March 1841, and also quantities of brandy, cigars and tobacco which they had brought by sea. Around 1840 he selected, in partnership with Charles Hervey Bagot, a section of 1500 acres at Koonunga on the River Light, on which they ran sheep. The partnership was dissolved in 1843 and Dutton took the lease on a property near Kapunda, which he named Anlaby for a village in Yorkshire. He installed his brother Francis as manager and Alexander Buchanan J.P. as overseer. He and Alexander Lang Elder took up a special survey at Mount Remarkable. Apart from his pastoral properties, he had substantial interests in copper mines at Burra, Kapunda and Montacute. He was a director of the Bank of Australasia. He sat in the Legislative Council from August 1852 to July 1853, when he left for England, returning in 1858. Six months later he left again, returning in 1868. He left again, never to return; his ability to participate actively in his business interests being greatly hampered by cataracts. He joined the Royal Colonial Institute in 1872. Dutton never married. He died in London with assets valued at £800,000. He left Anlaby to his nephew Henry Dutton.
Philanthropy
Unlike many "pioneers" who made their fortunes and retired to the "Old Country" as absentee landlords and shareholders, Frederick Dutton did leave some assets for the people of South Australia. During his lifetime he gave £2,500 for the establishment of the Kapunda Hospital, gave land and funds to establish Dutton Park recreation area in Kapunda, and endowed the Kapunda and Light Agricultural Society and Kapunda Institute. He also made considerable donations to the St. Peter's Cathedral building fund and St. Peter's College.
