William McLean (1845 – 25 August 1914) was a 19th-century Liberal Party Member of Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand. Early life McLean was born in Grantown, Scotland, in 1845, the youngest son of John McLean, a shoemaker. He was adopted by a parish priest at an early age. Aged 13, he moved to Rochdale to work as a cotton spinner. His employer suspended operations in 1863 in the Lancashire Cotton Famine caused by the American Civil War, and McLean emigrated to New Zealand for the Otago Gold Rush. Life in New Zealand He arrived in Dunedin on the Dauntless and went to the gold fields in Central Otago. He was successful and could open a store in the Bread and Water gully. When word of the West Coast Gold Rush arrived, he went to Hokitika at once. He broke his arm digging at Lake Kaniere and had to go to Christchurch for medical treatment, as there were no doctors on the West Coast yet. He returned to the West Coast, and then back to Central Otago, before settling in Reefton. For a time, he was a schoolmaster on the West Coast. He erected the second gold mining plant in Reefton, and became an auctioneer and a mining and commission agent. On 20 April 1877, McLean married Mary Elizabeth Crumpton, the daughter of Thomas Crumpton. The Crumptons were from Charleston on the West Coast. He moved to Wellington in 1884, where he was an auctioneer at first. For a few years following, he was secretary for the Wellington Loan Company, and afterwards secretary for the Empire Loan and Discount Company. Political career McLean was one of three candidates in the Inangahua electorate in the , but came last with just 3% of the vote. McLean contested the electorate in the , but was beaten by Alfred Newman. He unsuccessfully contested the three-member electorate in the , where he came seventh. He represented the City of Wellington electorate from an 1892 by-election to the 1893 general election, when he was defeated. In 1892, he narrowly defeated the later Prime Minister Francis Bell by 3388 votes to 3245. McLean contested the electorate in the and came a very close second to John Aitken, with just 19 votes (0.32%) between them. He contested the Wellington East electorate again in , but the Liberal vote was split by another Liberal candidate, George Winder. In the