[3][4] Advancing to the rank of assistant commissioner to William Sleeman, he was assigned to the Doab region in 1832 where he investigated men who were accused of thuggee.

[2] He took up 108 hectares (1.08 km2) of land on the other side of the Port Hills and named the farm Cashmere (now a suburb of Christchurch) after Kashmir in India.

Wilson left Lyttelton on 19 December 1844 on the Waterwitch for India, and the following year, his eldest son arrived to take over the management of the properties.

His daughter Emma met Logan Campbell on the journey; they married on 25 February 1858 at Meerut, NWP India; they lived in Europe then in Auckland, New Zealand.

[11] After he returned to New Zealand in 1859 Cracroft Wilson was elected to the House of Representatives for the electorates of City of Christchurch (1861–1866), Coleridge (1866–1870), and Heathcote (1872–1875).

[12] On 30 July 1872, he was elected unopposed in a by-election to represent Heathcote following the resignation by John Hall, who had accepted a position in the Legislative Council.

[13] In the 1875–1876 general election, held on 4 January 1876 in the Heathcote electorate, Cracroft Wilson was defeated by James Temple Fisher.

During the 1860s, when Māori affairs were frequently before the House, Cracroft Wilson drew freely on his Indian experiences to reinforce his arguments.

He represented Ashburton on the Canterbury Provincial Council from May 1862 to May 1866 and Heathcote from March to July 1871, and again from April 1874 to abolition of the Provinces in October 1876.