A Mr. Brunton was a cabin passenger on the “Agnes and Elizabeth” (a schooner of 74 tons, Captain J. Mitchell), which departed Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land on 25 January 1840 and arrived at Melbourne, Port Phillip, on 30 January 1840. ( Ref: Passengers – Interstate Inwards, 1840 )
Brunton, Alexander (cabinet maker) late of Hobart was buried on 10 October 1840, aged 30 years. ( “Presbyterian records of the Old Melbourne Cemetery found in the New South Wales Archives” by Bernard Grayden )
Located in the Protestant Section of the Old Melbourne Cemetery was a grave – a piece of white marble lying on a bluestone platform. This reads “Alexander Brunton (late of Hobart Town) Cabinet Maker, died at Melbourne, 8th October 1840, aged 30 years. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” Isaac Selby comments: “Brunton represents the successful working man. I knew his daughter who was a wealthy woman by virtue of the property he bought in early Melbourne. John Ross bought a section of land of which Alston’s Corner is a part. He paid £ 32 for it, and resold a portion to Brunton for £ 606. It is now a part of ‘The Block’. He was buried in the cemetery a little over three years after it opened.” ( “The Memorials of Early Melbourne” by Isaac Selby – published 1924, p. 390; No. 274 )
Alexander Brunton, of Melbourne (first part) purchased from Peter Virtue and Alexander Miller; both of Melbourne, Gentlemen, on the 16 March 1840 (date of conveyance) – part of allotment 1, section 12, which had a frontage of 30 feet to Collins Street and a frontage of 30 feet to Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, for which Brunton paid £ 320. (Note: This block was part of land originally purchased by John Ross, a carpenter, of Melbourne). Alexander made his will on the 14 July 1840 appointing James Forbes, of Melbourne, a Presbyterian Minister and John Brown, of Melbourne, a builder as his trustees and executors. He directed that following the completion of the building on the above land, they were to gather the rents and apply them for the future benefit of his daughter Elizabeth in trust, she then under the care of Mr. John Williat of Evandale, Van Diemen’s Land. He directed that his daughter be sent to his sister (Mrs. Elizabeth Farquhar of Edinburgh, Scotland) with all possible speed. In his will Brunton also mentions his brothers James, John, George, Adam, Andrew and Ephraim.
( see The Port Phillip Pioneer Record Of References – Image Nos. 6761 & 6762 )