William Wedd Tuxford was a parliamentarian and agricultural machinery dealer in the early days of the Colony of South Australia. He was born in Boston, Lincolnshire the son of John Tuxford and Hannah Parker, and apprenticed as a printer, at one stage working on the Mark Lane Express agricultural weekly partly, later fully, owned by his brother George Parker Tuxford. He arrived in South Australia in May 1853 and set himself up with brother John Lefevre Tuxford as the Colony's first importer of agricultural machinery, between Grote and Gouger Streets, near Selby Street, then opened on North Terrace in December 1858. They acted as Australian agent for Mark Lane Express, which they sold at the London cover price. Business dropped off however as local manufacture of such equipment boomed, compounded by some unsuccessful speculation in mining ventures, and was forced to close his machinery business, which ceased trading in 1873. He took up management of the City Arms Hotel on King William Street in July 1875. He was elected to the Legislative Council on 1 March 1865, retiring on 2 February 1873, though he was never a prominent figure in Parliament or politics. He was for many years a committee member of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society. He was an active Freemason.
Family
Eldest brother George Parker Tuxford was the publisher of English magazines Mark Lane Express and the Farmer's Weekly.
His brother John Lefevre Tuxford arrived in South Australia in January 1839 on the from London, married Clara Evans. He was the manager of his brother Walsingham's Sportsman's Hotel on Byron Place, off Grote Street, until he joined his brother William in the machinery business. When that closed he resumed management of the hotel, which was run by his wife and daughters after his death. He was a substantial shareholder in the Yelta Mine on Yorke's Peninsula. He had five daughters and one son.
His brother Walsingham Weston Tuxford also migrated to South Australia, married Mary Ann Williams in 1855. He was the owner of the Sportsman's Hotel run by his brother. He died from a self-inflicted throat laceration following business failures and the death of his wife.
