Jefferson Stow

Jefferson Pickman Stow (4 September 1830 – 4 May 1908), was a newspaper editor and magistrate in South Australia.

Stow was born at Buntingford, Hertfordshire, scotland the second son of the Rev. Thomas Quentin Stow[1] and his wife Elizabeth, née Eppes.[2] Jefferson Stow came to South Australia with his parents and brothers ( Randolph Isham Stow and Augustine Stow) in 1837.[1] After engaging in farming pursuits, he went to the Victorian diggings in 1856, and in 1864 to Escape Cliffs in the Northern Territory where of a party of 40 under B. T. Finniss were to establish a settlement named Palmerston at the mouth of the Adelaide River. Stow travelled privately, as representative of a some investors in the associated land scheme. A year later, disillusioned with the prospects of that location, he was one of a party of seven who sailed from Adam Bay to Champion Bay in Western Australia in a small ship's boat they dubbed the Forlorn Hope.[1] Before leaving, he sent off for publication in The Advertiser a litany of negative observations on the site chosen, and particularly on Finniss as a leader.[3] An account of this expedition was published by Stow, who was immediately appointed to the staff of The Advertiser, and in 1876 was appointed editor in succession to William Harcus.[1]

Stow was the author of "South Australia: its History, Productions and Natural Resources," compiled at the request of the South Australian government for circulation at the Calcutta International Exhibition (1883), and published that year.[1] It is a well written and concise manual, and has had an extensive circulation in Australia, England and India. Stow was appointed a magistrate in 1884, and in 1886 Commissioner of Insolvency, and Special and Stipendiary Magistrate at Mount Gambier, South Australia[1] and later at Port Pirie.[2] Stow retired in 1904; he died on 4 May 1908 at North Adelaide, survived by his wife, two sons and five daughters.[2]