We continue our journey to The Heads.

CHAPTER 4.
TOOTGAROOK STATION.
James Purves' contribution to Mornington Peninsula history.
1.He was one of the two most important horse breeders in the colony's early days, his prime interest being business activity in Melbourne and his stud near Kilmore, but the horse business was also a major focus at Tootgarook.
2.Being a successful businessman he was able to purchase in 1850, the lease of the Tootgarook Run from Edward Hobson, incorporate the Wooloowoolooboolook Run (which was probably between Boneo Rd and Truemans Rd as it fronted Capel Sound according to I SUCCEEDED ONCE) and buy the Tootgarook pre-emptive right soon after.
3. He owned the Rosebud when it was stranded in May 1855 and had it insured for 700 pounds. Edward Hobson moved to Gippsland in about 1843,managing and naming his brother Edmund's Run and naming it by the aboriginal term for river of little fish,corrupted to Traralgon. It is possible that Tootgarook was managed by the Purves brothers, mainly Peter, with James paying the occasional visit. Edward Hobson got into financial difficulties and James Purves may have bought the Run and the schooner as a favour to help him out.

Charles Hollinshed, author of LIME LAND LEISURE (history of the shire of Flinders) was an architect and devoted many pages to James Purves and Edward Latrobe Bateman who followed the same profession. I don't recall him mentioning Peter Purves.

If you enter PURVES on trove and choose the decade 1850-1859,you'll find that James Purves did indeed spend much of his time in Melbourne, much of it in the courts.

Come on itellya, how can you say that James Purves spent little time at Tootgarook? A search for PURVES,TOOTGAROOK on trove produced these results.


The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Friday 4 July 1862 p 4 Family Notices
...ohn Corboy, hotelkeeper, of Nenega, Ireland. PURVES -QUINAN-On the 16th ult, at the residence of the brides father, Dromana, by the Rev. James Glover, of Schnapper Point, James Purves, of Tootgarook,

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Monday 11 November 1867 p 4 Family Notices
PURVES.-On the 3rd inst., at Broomielaw, Tootgarook, Mrs. James Purves of a daughter.

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Thursday 13 June 1878 p 4 Article
... Purves was born in Berwick-on-Twccd, and carno out to Tasmania at tho ugo of 21. He arrived at Hobart ... \oyago occupied over a week, and the sheep were nearly famished on their ar- rival. Mr. Purves took up ... the Chintin station, at Deep Creek, and was also owner of Tootgarook station, near Dromana,

My first answer is that only the obituary concerns the architect and that it refers to Tootgarook only as an after-thought. The marriage and birth concern his nephew, the son of Peter Purves. This James Purves was born to Peter Purves and his wife Barbara(nee Scott)on 29-9-1835 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. A month later, Barbara died and heartbroken, Peter left the babe in the care of an aunt, and sailed to Van Diemans Land to join his brother James. Their expertise as architect and mason won them many bridge building contracts. At 18, young James had a burning desire to get to know his father and arrived at Tootgarook in 1852. Father and son had 8 years together before Peter died in 1860.

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Saturday 31 March 1860 p 4 Family Notices
... daughter of Mr. Charles Cumming, farmer, Bacchus Marsh. DEATHS. On the 16th inst., at Tootgarook, Point Nepean, formerly of Berwick-on-Tweed, Mr. Peter Purves, aged 58 years, deeply regretted

If you were looking for James Purves, the architect and owner of Tootgarook,the following results for James Purves, Tootgarook, give a fair indication where to look.

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Thursday 16 October 1856 p 8 Advertising
... Tom o'Lincoln. These will stand at Tootgarook, fifty miles from Melbourne, and near Arthur's Seat. _ For further particular seo Circulnrs, or in- quire of JAMES PURVES, 74 Collins-street west,

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Tuesday 23 June 1863 p 8 Advertising
... tho Breodiug Establishment at Tootgarook, consisting of impoittd thoroughbred mares, colonial do, ... For further particulars apply to J. PURVES, Scott's | Hotel, Collins stroot.

The clincher,if further proof is needed that the architect spent little time at Tootgarook,cannot be found on trove but is available in Peter Wilson's ON THE ROAD TO ROSEBUD and Jennifer Nixon's FAMILY, CONNECTIONS, SORRENTO AND PORTSEA. (P.S.I have pasted a commentary about the petition at the end of the TOOTGAROOK entry.) It involves a dodgy petition opposing a plan to build a fence from White Cliff, circa 1859, to enclose the police paddock. Investigation by a government official found that many who signed the petition did not really oppose the fence, many actually wanting it. They had been persuaded to sign by James Ford and Peter Purves, who between them had something like 600 bullocks obtaining free grazing on the police paddock. It would have taken some time to get all the signatures and they don't seem to have missed anybody except James Purves, Peter's brother, the owner of Tootgarook!

The Tootgarook pre-emptive right started 833 metres west of Truemans Rd (Keith/Morris St midline), extending west to Government Rd, Rye. The southern boundary is indicated by the ends of streets heading south off Brights Drive. The architect had also purchased crown allotments 1, 2, 3 of the parish of Nepean, 174 acres between the pre-emptive right and the township of Rye (originally called Tootgarook.)

The following commentary about the 1859 petition comes from my journal about the WHITES OF SORRENTO AND RYE.
THE 1859 PETITION.
At this time, there was no township of Rye, and according to LIME LAND LEISURE, the Rye Hotel was in Dromana! When the Township was declared in 1861, it was called Tootgarook, probably because it had been part of the Tootgarook run. John Campbell apparently had built a jetty in 1860 and this probably prompted lime burners to erect houses near the pier so they would be close to home when they brought the day's production for shipping. One house, occupied by John Berry, and later by the Sullivans when they moved from the Heads in 1852, is said to have been the first house in the township area. In 1869, almost all of the suburban blocks south of the cemetery and west of Dundas St were bought by limeburners ( more truly lime merchants such as W.A Blair. It has not been definitely established whether Thomas Monahan was connected with the lime industry or just a land speculator.)
James Purves bought his square mile pre-emptive right on 22-10-1855. Ford's land was mainly near Portsea. The Wannbaeue parish map does not indicate when the Fords acquired Wannaeue Station bounded by Eastbourne Rd, Boneo Rd, an eastern extension of Hiscock Rd and Jetty/Old Cape Schank Rd. O'Shannassy reported that Purves and Ford were the only landowners.

Many of the limeburners would have been illiterate. Their names would have been printed (by Peter Purves or James Sandle Ford) and followed by "their mark", usually a cross (X). The names on the petition opposing construction of the fence were: James Ford, Peter Purves, Robert Rainey, James Patterson, George Mitchell, Robert Quinan, George White, Robert White, Richard White, Jeremiah White , James Swan,
Arthur Robinson MATCD (presumably the other Melbourne resident), Alfred Evans, Nathan Page, John Dillon, Edward Russell, Patrick Sullivan, Edward M.Williams, Richard White, George White, Isaac Prout, Owen Cain, Mrs John Devine, Ben Stennigan (Stenniken), Timothy Sullivan, Thomas Clancy, George Baker, Charles Dean, Mrs Edward Skelton, Samuel Clark, Samuel Williams, Richard Kenna (Melbourne resident!)

Snr Constable O'Shannassy was asked to ascertain why the settlers and limeburners had signed the petition. He found that Clark, Williams, Nathan Page, Mrs Skelton and Jeremiah White had not signed and weren't even asked to sign. George White senior and Robert Quinan, both limeburners, had signed, not wanting to offend their old neighbours,even though they actually wanted the fence. Thomas White and 15 other limeburners wanted the fence to prevent Ford and Purves overgrazing the area with their combined 800 head of cattle. They complained that their own bullocks (obviously used for ploughing and hauling lime)were dying from starvation.
Robert, George and Richard White, Ford, Purves, Cain, Stennigan (sic), and Patrick and Timothy Sullivan feared that their cattle would be turned out of the area.


N.B.Much genealogical information regarding Peter Purves and the descendants of his son, James, are available in Hec. Hanson's MEMOIRS OF A LARRIKIN. Send a private message if you would like this information.