FamousGortons

Samuel Gorton was born at Gorton,  near Manchester, England. He was christened at The Collegiate Church in Manchester, now Manchester Cathedral, on February 12, 1592. Seeking religious freedom, he emigrated to America in 1637 but, because of his unorthodox religious teachings, was banished successively from Boston and Plymouth. At Portsmouth, Rhode Island, he joined Anne Hutchinson in ousting William Coddington but on Coddington's return to power was himself turned out. In 1642, Gorton bought Native American land south of Providence from the Great Chief Miantonomo. This tract of land was to become known as the Shawomet Purchase. The Massachusetts authorities, with designs on that territory, jailed him, in 1643, for holding erroneous religious opinions. Gorton returned to England and, with the help of the Earl of Warwick, finally obtained a royal charter giving him freedom from molestation on his land. Shawomet was renamed  Warwick, in the Earl's honour, in 1648, and Gorton preached there to colonists and Native Americans. His followers called themselves “Gortonites” for many decades after his death. His tenets included denial of the Trinity, denial of actual heaven and hell, and a belief that every man should be his own. He died in Warwick on December 10, 1677, at the age of 85.

 

Sir John Grey Gorton (1911-2002), was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.  Gorton was born in Melbourne, the son of an orchardist from Kerang.  In 1940 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force, where he served as a fighter pilot. He survived two serious crashes, and in one he suffered horrific facial injuries, requiring extensive reconstructive surgery that left his face permanently disfigured.

As a politician, Gorton became a member of the Senate and when Harold Holt died in December 1967, John Gorton  become Liberal leader and Prime Minister. Gorton was initially a very popular Prime Minister. He carved out a style quite distinct from those of his predecessors - the aloof Menzies and the affable, sporty Holt. Gorton liked to portray himself as a man of the people who enjoyed a beer and a gamble, with a bit of a "larrikin" streak about him. Unfortunately for him, this reputation later came back to haunt him.

After Labor won the 1972 elections, Gorton served in the Shadow Ministry of Snedden until after the 1974 elections, when he was dropped. When Fraser became Liberal leader in 1975, Gorton resigned from the party and sat as an independent.

Gorton retired to Canberra, where he kept out of the political limelight, although he quietly rejoined the Liberal Party.  In his old age he was rehabilitated by the Liberals; his 90th birthday party was attended by Prime Minister John Howard, and the publication of a new biography restored his reputation. He died in his ninety-first year from pneumonia and respiratory failure in a Sydney hospital.

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