Finding where your Ancestors Lived in Melbourne in the 1840s

Long-time member of the Port Phillip Pioneers Group, Ken Smith has scrutinised all the land transactions in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales from the time of the first land sales on 1st June 1837 until 1851 with the aim of finding where people lived.

Using a combination of Memorial records, Council rate books, Council valuation books and newspaper advertisements he has tried to identify the position of properties on a plan he drew up of Melbourne as it was in 1839. His interest lay in freehold property only.

On August 12th 1842, the Legislative Council of New South Wales incorporated Melbourne as a Town, allowing councillors to be elected in Melbourne to administer the affairs of the Town and following on from the first municipal elections of Councillors on 1st December 1842, rate books and evaluation books were introduced. To understand the memorial records and rate books, knowledge of the layout of Melbourne is required.

The area allotted to the Town of Melbourne consisted of the Parish of North Melbourne, in the County of Bourke, which included all houses on the north side of the Yarra River and also Melbourne’s first suburb, New Town (north of Victoria Parade, around Brunswick Street).

The town of Melbourne was divided into four wards with Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street being the internal boundaries. Starting north of Bourke Street and west of Elizabeth Street, and moving clockwise, the wards were named, Bourke, Gipps, La Trobe and Lonsdale.

The four wards were then divided up into sections and allotments. Starting from the south-west corner of Lonsdale ward, (corner of Flinders Street and Spencer Street) was section one, itself divided into 20 allotments of about half an acre, the numbering of each allotment going in an anti-clockwise direction.

The Memorials mentioned above, were the Old Law land records before the Torrens system of Land Titles came into existence. Originally at the Registrar Generals Office, they can be accessed at the Repository for Public Records in Cherry Lane, Laverton, but will soon be put in permanent storage at the Public Records Office in North Melbourne. Digital copies will be available for viewing.

Before locating a Memorial, an index has to be searched, and in the case of a conveyance record, for example, the only name to be found will be the name of the seller. The buyer’s name is in the Memorial, but is not in the index.

In the Memorials pre 1851 a property in Melbourne was described as being in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, the Parish of North Melbourne, in the County of Bourke. The portion number and section number was given and the boundaries of the property were described starting from a particular point.

Ken has now transcribed every land transaction registered at the Registrar Generals Office up to the early part of 1853 in all of Victoria where land had been alienated from the Crown, making a note of every name on the records; all parties to a transaction, buyer and seller for example, the name of a spouse or partner, the witnesses, who were usually solicitors’ clerks. Ken’s index gives the names of all involved in a transaction, which is better for genealogists!

The Memorials show who owned the property, but not necessarily who lived there.

The rate books and particularly the valuation books provide different information. An assessor inspected each property and gave it a value. From this figure the rates to be paid was calculated. The assessors started from the corner of Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street walking north, south, east or west indicating their starting point and the names of streets they crossed.

Initially there were no street numbers. On the 24th June 1845, Alderman Andrew Russell proposed that all streets, entries, and lanes should have a name affixed at their corner and all houses should be numbered. However, each time a new dwelling was built the numbering changed.

The numbering was consecutive. North-south roads had odd numbers on the east side, even numbers on the west side. East-west roads had odd numbers on the north side and even numbers on the south side. So that No. ‘5 Collins Street West’ would be on the north side of Collins Street, a few doors west of Elizabeth Street.

The valuation book for 1845/46 lists Thomas McCombie, tenant, at 72 Bourke Street in a 5 roomed brick house, a kitchen and yard. The owner was James Westwood and the value was £25. McCombie’s occupation was given as Editor of the “Port Phillip Gazette.” Next door was the 11 roomed residence of James Westwood, owner and Innkeeper. The value for his property was £100. Street numbers were included in 1845/46 but not in the years 1843/44 or 1847/48.

Newspaper advertisements often included helpful details. In 1851, Richard Cox, Spirit & Wine Merchant, advertised his premises at ’48 Collins Street, next the Union Bank.’ He didn’t mention east or west, but the Union Bank, built 1842, was at 50 Collins Street on the south-east corner of Collins Street and Queen Street.

Ken has found that, employing all available records, although not completely impossible, the task of finding where a person lived in the 1840s is extremely difficult.

The above is a report on the address by Ken Smith at the General Meeting on 16 February 2019 Contributed by Jan Hanslow. PPPG Member No. 1057 

KEN SMITH’S PLANS OF MELBOURNE

“Town of Melbourne 1840“

Block Bounded by Collins, Queen, Bourke, and William Streets

Bourke Street, Little Bourke Street, Romeo Parade and Juliet Terrace, Melbourne

 
Government Paddock, Yarra Yarra River

Government Road leading to Heidelberg

Source of Images: Ken Smith