See also
| Husband: | Samuel Pole Phllips (1819-1901) | |
| Wife: | Sophia Roe (1829-1902) | |
| Marriage | 29 Apr 1847 | Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
| Name: | Samuel Pole Phllips | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 11 Mar 1819 | Culham House, Oxfordshire, England |
| Baptism | 19 Apr 1819 (age 0) | Culham, Oxfordshire |
| Death | 13 Jun 1901 (age 82) | Culham, Toodyay, Western Australia |
| Name: | Sophia Roe | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | John Septimus Roe (1797-1878) | |
| Mother: | Matilda Bennett (1804-1870) | |
| Birth | 25 Dec 1829 | Swan River Colony, Western Australia |
| Death | 6 Oct 1902 (age 72) | Culham, Toodyay, Western Australia |
Samuel Pole Phillips (1819-1901), 'Squire' pastoralist, was born on 11 March 1819 at Culham, Oxfordshire, England, youngest son of John Phillips and his wife Anne Francis, née Shawe. Though educated for the Anglican ministry at Winchester College, he migrated in the Montreal to Western Australia, arriving in 1839. With Edward Hamersley, a relation by marriage, he bought land in the Toodyay Valley where he built his homestead, Culham.
Phillips was a director for the Toodyay District on the Western Australian Roads Trust in 1840-42 and 1847. Appointed a district magistrate in 1840 and a justice of the peace in 1855, he served for many years. In 1847 he married Sophia (1829-1902), eldest daughter of J. S. Roe; she was the first child born to any of the official party after the Parmelia arrived in 1829. Roe commemorated his son-in-law in Phillips River and Culham Inlet on his southern exploration in 1848-49.
Phillips faced ruin in the depressed years and talked of leaving the colony but when convicts arrived in 1850 his fortunes soon recovered. Hamersley & Co. took up a vast cattle run on the Irwin River, but Phillips devoted most of his time to horse-breeding. He was a founder of the Western Australian Turf Club in 1852 and the Newcastle Race Club in 1865. In 1865 he was presented with a silver medal from the Humane Society for riding into stormy seas to rescue drowning men from the immigrant ship Electric.
The Phillips family visited England in 1853-55 and returned with two family friends and three thoroughbred stallions. The three men became partners in breeding horses for the lucrative India market. The partnership broke up in 1858, and in the depressed 1870s Phillips had to relinquish many of his Toodyay pastoral leases.
Phillips led a very active public life. In 1857-72 he was a nominee in the Legislative Council. He was then elected to the Toodyay Roads Board in 1872-78 and 1881-83, mostly serving as chairman, but his high-handed methods lost him his seat. For short periods he acted as resident magistrate for the Toodyay District.
Culham was always conducted in the best English county tradition and the 'Squire' continued to dominate the valley until he died on 13 June 1901. Over six feet tall and bearded to his chest, he had an imposing appearance. His abrupt manner and quick temper were offset by fondness for children, practical joking and generous hospitality. In pampered old age, beset by gout, he was wheeled round Culham in a bathchair and sometimes driven in a dogcart with his wife to call on neighbours. These he regarded as his tenants and they humoured him by springing to attention and pulling forelocks, an English custom scorned by the young folk but treasured by their elders. Despite his faults they recognized him as 'a gentleman born'.
Phillips, his wife and several of their nine children were buried at St Phillips's. Culham is still held by descendants, and incorporated in a wing of the old homestead is the original stone building in which the 'Squire' first lived.
Source: Rica Erickson, 'Phillips, Samuel Pole (1819–1901)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/phillips-samuel-pole-4397/text7167, accessed 29 April 2013