Dr. William Wyatt (1804-1886), surgeon, landowner and public servant, was born at Plymouth, Devon, England, the son of Richard Wyatt, gentleman. Apprenticed at 16 to Thomas Stewart, a Plymouth surgeon, he became a licentiate of the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries in London and the surgeon of a large dispensary. In 1828 he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and began a private practice at Plymouth, where he was also curator of the museum of the Literary and Scientific Institution, and studied zoology and other sciences allied to medicine. In 1836 he applied without success for a post in South Australia, even though a supporter thought him studious, prudent, moral and much else besides. Wyatt was determined, however, to emigrate with his wife and hoped to practise medicine and be an agricultural proprietor as well. As surgeon in the John Renwick he arrived in February 1837 in Adelaide, where at next month's opening land sale he bought six town acres (2.4 ha); he later acquired many suburban and rural sections as far afield as Port Lincoln (Alan Rendell, Australian Dictionary of biography).

Wyatt, William Junior, 1838-1872

Wyatt, William Senior, 1804-1886

Wyatt, W. Monograph on Certain Crustacea Entomostraca Adelaide, 1883

Wyatt, W. 'Some account of the manners and superstitions of the Adelaide and Encounter Bay Aboriginal tribes' in Woods, J.D. and others, Native Tribes of South Australia Adelaide, 1879