Philanthropist
17 April 1874 – 19 April 1951
Commissioned by the Trustees
of the Helen M Schutt Trust.
By Jane Sandilands
Helen M. S
chutt
Philanthropist
A history of her life
Helen Macpherson Schutt
Helen M Schutt Trust
Level 8
20 Queen Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Telephone [+61 3] 9614 7933
Facsimile [+61 3] 9614 8471
Email hmschutt@bigpond.com.au
Trustees
Darvell M Hutchinson AM
J Barry Hutchins OAM
Publisher: Helen M Schutt Trust
Jane Sandilands
Helen Macpherson Schutt: Philanthropist
ISBN 0-646-41183-7
© Copyright 2001 Helen M Schutt Trust, Melbourne, Australia.
Helen Macpherson Schutt (née) Smith
17 April 1874 – 19 April 1951
This publication remembers the 50th anniversary of the
benefaction of Helen Macpherson Schutt and honours
her lasting legacy to the people of Victoria.
Page
2
Introduction
3
Life Lines: Helen Macpherson Schutt
4
A Mysterious Death
5
An Only Child
8
Married Life
10
Life in Europe
14
The Husband: William John Schutt
17
Helen’s Landowner Forebears: The Macphersons
18
‘A Snug Plain’: The Macphersons’ Canberra Legacy
20
‘Splendid Land’: the Western District
22
The Macphersons in Australia
25
Macpherson Family Members of Note
26
Life Lines: The Macphersons
27
The Smiths of Scotland
29
The Smiths in Australia
33
Life Lines: The Smiths in Land and Timber
34
A Lasting Legacy
36
Acknowledgments
Note: The Macpherson name is spelt in several ways. Historian, Henderson uses the form ‘MacPherson’. One of Helen’s direct descendants, the
Reverend Ian MacPherson, formerly of Canberra, A.C.T. and now of Rockingham, Western Australia, also uses this form. Others use ‘McPherson’. Helen
Macpherson Schutt signed her wedding certificate ‘Macpherson’ which is that generally used in this history, except when directly quoting from documents.
1
Contents
Contents
Introduction
Introduction
2
The life of Helen Schutt was not one that made headlines.
She lived comfortably and quietly, first in Melbourne,
then in Europe, secure in the financial and social legacy of
a family of entrepreneurs in land, farming and timber. She
was born Helen Macpherson Smith in Scotland in 1874
to her Scottish father, Robert Smith and her Australian
mother of Scottish descent, Jane Priscilla Macpherson.
Helen attended school in Scotland, Europe and Australia.
In 1901, aged 27, Helen married William John Schutt.
He was 33, a barrister, raconteur, Essendon footballer and
later to become a Judge of the Victorian Supreme Court.
Of the 22 years of their married life in Melbourne, little
is known. They had no children and Helen’s name rarely
appeared in the social pages of newspapers or magazines.
It is through the reporting of William’s life, especially
after his retirement from the bench, that we learn
something of Helen’s life in Europe, where she lived
from late in 1923 until her death in 1951.
In Europe, Helen travelled widely, with a base in both
Switzerland and the south of France. She and William
made extensive trips together and they spent much time
together in Europe, their activities widely reported in
the press.
William Schutt died in 1933, aged 65, after an accident
on board ship while returning to Australia from one of his
many visits abroad.
And in 1951, while living in the South of France, Helen
contracted pneumonia and died at the Hotel Majestic
in Cannes.
The story of Helen Macpherson Schutt could have ended
there but for the fact that on her death, she left the
majority of her considerable wealth to Victorian charities.
The capital of the Helen Macpherson Schutt Trust is now
valued at over $50 million with more than $2 million
given each year to fund a variety of Victorian charities.
Recipients include hospitals, art galleries, museums,
homes for the aged, educational institutions and medical
research bodies, among many others. The trust’s most
recent legacy is the dedication of a $5 million fund
to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the trust by
approving special grants.
Helen’s financial legacy is not the only lasting mark
left on Australia and its people. Helen’s forebears – both
Macphersons and Smiths – were strong, energetic and
resourceful, and include many who have contributed much
to Australian life.
Helen Macpherson Schutt.
3
Life Lines
Life Lines: Helen Macpherson Schutt
17 April 1874
Born in Scotland, to Scottish born father Robert Smith and Australian born mother,
Jane Priscilla Macpherson.
22 May 1874
Helen baptised.
September 1874
Aged six months, Helen travels to Melbourne with her parents.
Until 1881
The family live at Helena House, Nicholson Street, Fitzroy.
1881 – 1889
Exact family whereabouts unknown, but includes time in Australia, Europe,
England and Scotland.
18 March 1889
Helen enrols at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne and attends for one year.
Previously enrolled at school in Hanover, Germany.
11 December 1901
Helen marries William John Schutt, Barrister, in Melbourne. Helen is 27, William 33.
24 December 1923
Aged 49, Helen leaves Australia to live in Europe. Husband William travels on the
same ship but disembarks in Colombo, while Helen travels on to Toulon.
1923 – 1933
Helen lives in Europe and England and frequently travels with William. Reported in
the society pages.
1923 – 1933
William makes many trips back and forth to Australia. Resigns from the Bench in 1926.
30 November 1933
William is returning to Australia by ship from England. He falls and dies from concussion
of the brain and is given a ship’s burial in the Red Sea.
1933 – April 1951
Helen lives in Europe, dividing her time between Switzerland and the south of France.
19 April 1951
Helen dies at the Hotel Majestic in Cannes and is buried in a pauper’s grave.
Leaves instructions under her will to set up a Philanthropic Trust.
A Mysterious Death
A Mysterious Death
4
Helen Macpherson Schutt died from pneumonia on
April 19, 1951, at the Hotel Majestic in Cannes, in the
South of France.
The death itself was not unusual. Helen was 77 years old,
then a good age by any standard. A passport photo taken
in her later years shows a finely boned, slender woman
with a direct gaze. What was unusual was that a woman
of her wealth and station, for reasons we may never know,
was buried in a pauper’s grave. And although there was
a cemetery in Cannes, where Helen died, her body was
taken from Cannes to Marseilles, arriving there at the
Saint Pierre Cemetery on Tuesday, 24 April 1951,
a week after her death, in an zinc lined oak coffin.
Although Helen had requested cremation, she was buried.
Then, whether by instructions from solicitor or by friends,
her body was later exhumed and her remains cremated.
The Register at the Cemetery lacks the date of cremation
and officials are unable to explain the incomplete entry,
apparently totally out of keeping with normal cemetery
records.
In death, Helen was anonymous, identifiable neither by a
headstone, memorial nor cemetery records. Until the visit
in 1991 to the Cemetery by the Chairman of the Helen M
Schutt Trust, Darvell M Hutchinson, even her name had
been recorded incorrectly. Instead of Helen Smith or
Helen Schutt, her name appeared as ‘Smitts, Helene’
in the Register Book of the Cimetiere St Pierre, although
spelt correctly on the Death Certificate. And why was
her maiden name, rather than her married name,
on the Certificate?
The mystery of Helen Schutt does not end there. She lived
quietly, with little recorded about her life, her friends, her
interests or passions. At the end of both William’s and
Helen’s life, while there were many differences between
their personalities: she, quiet, reserved and elegant, he
gregarious and outgoing, neither leaves a visible grave or
monument. William’s body was consigned to the Red Sea
and Helen’s ashes were cast to the winds at Marseilles in
the South of France, far from the land in which she was
reared and to which her legacy continues to give so much.
Hotel Majestic in Cannes, South of France where Helen Macpherson Schutt died from pneumonia.
An Only Child
An Only Child
Helen was born in Scotland, at her father’s birthplace,
Darnick, in the District of Melrose in the Scottish Border
country, at ten past three in the morning of April 17, 1874,
just over a year after her parents had married in Melbourne.
Named Helen Macpherson Smith, she was baptised on
May 22nd, 1874 and was the Smith’s only child. Helen’s
mother, Australian born Jane Priscilla Macpherson, who
took Priscilla as her first name and was known to the
family as ‘Prissy’, and her father, Robert Smith, were
married in Melbourne on February 20, 1873. Robert
was 37 and Jane Priscilla 26.
The wedding certificate describes Jane Priscilla as ‘Lady’
and Robert as ‘Timber Merchant’ and they married at the
home of Jane Priscilla’s parents, 28 Nicholson Street,
Fitzroy, with the parents of both husband and wife present.
The house at Nicholson Street still stands today and is
now the St Vincent’s Hospital Department of Drug and
Alcohol Studies.
Coming from a family with a sound appreciation and
respect for property, Jane Priscilla had married a man
with similar interests. Between 1872 and 1875, Robert
bought land in Langton Street, Fitzroy, in Victoria Parade,
East Melbourne and in Lygon Street, Carlton and later
owned parcels of land across Victoria, contributing to the
wealth eventually passed to Helen Macpherson Schutt.
Jane Priscilla Macpherson, Helen’s mother.
5
Robert Smith, Helen’s father.
Helena House, 28 Nicholson Str
eet Fitzroy, Melbourne.
The house ‘Darnlee’
built by John Smith at Darnic
k, Scotland,
possibly Helen’
s birthplace.
6
Jane Priscilla and Robert travelled on their honeymoon
trip to Melrose, Scotland, leaving Melbourne for London
ten days after their marriage, on March 1, 1873, travelling
saloon class on the ‘Essex’, one of the line of packet ships
owned by English company Money Wigram and Sons.
Renowned for its beauty, early in the nineteenth century
the Melrose district had already developed a name with
travellers, especially those interested in fishing. Sporting
lodges were built on the banks of the River Tweed and the
local economy flourished with fishing and related activities.
Robert, Priscilla and Helen, then aged six months, returned
to Victoria on the ‘Durham’, arriving in Melbourne in
September 1874. Until 1881 they lived in ‘Helena House’,
28 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, left to Jane Priscilla by her
father, John Macpherson on his death in April 1875.
Robert bought several pieces of land during 1875.
From 1881 to 1889, exact details of the whereabouts of
the family are unknown, but it appears they spent time in
Australia, Europe, England and perhaps Scotland, leaving
Helen at boarding school in Melrose. In 1887, Priscilla
Smith was recorded as a resident of Jersey in the
Channel Islands.
On March 18, 1889, Helen started school at Presbyterian
Ladies’ College, then located in Albert Street, East
Melbourne. Aged 14, she arrived a month after the school
year had begun. The Enrolment Book records her previous
schooling at Hanover, Germany for two years and before
that, at boarding school in Melrose, Scotland. Although
the school rolls of the period no longer exist, it is likely
that Helen attended Glenview School in Melrose, which
had apparently established a reputation as a boarding
school for girls whose parents lived or worked abroad.
Helen’s cousins, Flora and Violet (daughters of Adam
Smith, Robert’s brother and a partner in the timber
merchant business) both previously attended Glenview.
Family loyalty and tradition, especially in the closely
knit Smith family, make it highly likely Helen attended
a school known by others in the family.
Enrolling at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne,
the records show that Helen knew “German well, a little
French, no Latin, Euclid or Algebra”. A ‘day-girl’, Helen
was to “take Music from the best master, German,
Elocution and Dancing”. Her parents’ address was given
as The Grand Hotel, Melbourne, then a temperance hotel
and now The Hotel Windsor.
It appears that Helen, Student Number 1395, attended
Presbyterian Ladies’ College for about a year, as her name
is not recorded in subsequent years, although exit cards
were not kept until after 1920. Her name is not recorded
in the State of Victoria Matriculation Records.
When Helen was a student, Presbyterian Ladies’ College
enrolled girls aged from five to 20. 250 students attended
the school. There was no official uniform and girls wore
long dark skirts and white blouses, with white dresses
‘recommended for Prize days’. The Head Master was
the Scottish born Mr John Purves Wilson, mathematician
and Shakespearean scholar and the Principal was the
non-teaching Reverend Samuel Gilfillan McLaren, who
left his parish in Coburg to take up the position. In 1889
the school’s name was changed from ‘Ladies’ College’
to ‘Presbyterian Ladies’ College’.
Judging by their various homes, the descriptions of the
wedding of Helen and William, and from the extent of
their property holdings, the family lived a comfortable
life. Robert Smith is recorded as ‘Timber Merchant’ for
some years, then as ‘Gentleman’. Active in land dealings
and an investor of substance, the records of his estate
show investments in such companies as Colonial Sugar
Refining Co. Ltd., the Shamrock Brewing Co. Ltd. and
Kauri Timber Company Ltd., among others.
Of Helen’s life in the years until her marriage in 1901,
little is known. For most women in her situation, life
centred around activities at home and within their own
social circles. No doubt she visited friends and
acquaintances, she had an interest in music from her
school days, and her name is mentioned in the press as
attending a society wedding with her mother.
7
On New Year’s Eve, 1899, Helen greeted the new century
at a house party at ‘Beleura’, a gracious property of just
over 182 acres acquired by Helen’s father earlier that
year. Built by Scotsman James Butchart around 1865 on
the cliff top near Mornington, overlooking Port Phillip
Bay, ‘Beleura’ is described by writer John Hetherington
in The Age, December 1963, as “one of the most notable
of a number of mansions which were built on the
Mornington Peninsula in the second half of last century”.
Robert left ‘Beleura’ to his wife, Jane Priscilla and it was
later owned by Sir George Tallis, managing director of the
J.C. Williamson theatre company who bought the property
in 1916. He left the property to his son, Mr Jack Tallis, a
reclusive composer who died in December 1996, leaving
the house to The Tallis Foundation, for the ‘benefit and
education’ of Victorians. Late in 1999, ‘Beleura’ made
news when it was revealed that Chigi, Mr Tallis’ dog,
a Bichon Frise and the last in a long line of dogs kept
by the family at the estate, had the run of the property
until her death.
Robert Smith, Helen’s father, died on June 17, 1904 and
her mother, Jane Priscilla, on December 2, 1914, leaving
most of her estate to Helen. The total of her mother’s
personal estate was £27,055 and included shares to the
value of £14,000 in the Kauri Timber Co.
Both beautiful and elegant, Helen is remembered by those
who knew her for her kindness, her regal bearing and
exquisite taste in clothes. Loyal and generous to her close
family, when she left Australia in December 1923, she
carefully organised gifts to mark significant anniversaries
of family members with instructions for their despatch
at the appropriate time.
Helen greeted the new century at ‘Beleura’, Mornington, a gracious property, then owned by her father. By permission of Mr John Tallis.
Married Life
Married Life
8
Helen married William John Schutt, Barrister, on
December 11, 1901, at Toorak Presbyterian Church.
Helen was 27 and William 33. The Reverend John Macrae
officiated and Helen was attended by three bridesmaids:
her cousin, Ada Howard and friends, the Misses Rosa
Menzies and Elsie Ingram. William’s best man was a
Mr. A.O. Henty. The wedding and reception at the
Smith family home, ‘Egoleen’ in Clendon Road,
Toorak, was a glittering occasion, reported in detail
in ‘The Australasian’, ‘Table Talk’ and ‘The Herald’.
Helen’s wedding dress, press reports say, was “a lovely
creation of richest ivory satin duchesse” and her veil was
of “rare old Honiton lace, fastened over the tiara of
orange blossoms with a diamond star”. She wore a
diamond crescent, a gift from William at her neck.
If the planning of Helen’s wedding is any indication,
she had a strong inclination to the romantic. For her
bridesmaids, ‘The Herald’ reports she chose hats of
“Java straw, trimmed with La France roses and lace” and
when she left for her honeymoon in the Blue Mountains
of New South Wales, Helen wore a tailor-made blue gown
and a hat “of Tuscan straw, trimmed with pink roses”.
Wedding guests came from as far away as Scotland and
Jersey, Sydney and Ballarat and the couple’s wedding
gifts ranged from a silver and glass mustard pot to the
Toorak villa, piano and dining room furniture given by
the bride’s father, Robert Smith.
‘Egoleen’ was handsomely decorated for the occasion,
as reported in ‘The Australasian’:
“Subsequently, refreshments were served to the wedding
guests at numerous small tables… the decorations
consisted of masses of glorious flowers, each table having
a different arrangement, while overhead soft festoonings
of rosebuds and rhododendrons were carried from the
walls, meeting at the centre chandelier, where they united
in a wealth of clustering blossoms. In the drawing room,
where the reception was held, the floral decoration
scheme was chiefly white. The bow window was festooned
with flowers and white draperies and it was here the bride
and bridegroom stood.”
Helen and William travelled to Sydney, then on to the
Blue Mountains for their honeymoon where they stayed
at ‘Yester Grange’ built for Goodlet and Smith, the family
building company based in Granville, New South Wales.
Used by its Managing Director, William Smith and his
wife Susan, ‘Yester Grange’ stands on the edge of the ridge
above the spectacular Wentworth Falls and is surrounded
by a manicured garden of 10.5 acres and specimen trees
from all over the world. From the front verandah, the view
of the Jamison Valley is breathtaking. It is believed to have
been named by William Smith after ‘Yester House’ in
Gifford, near Edinburgh, Scotland and there is also a
‘Yester Grange’ in the Shetland Islands. Built from
New Zealand kauri timber and with an iron roof, ‘Yester
Grange’, a house of 74 squares, was bought in 1902, the
year after Helen and William’s visit, by Sir John See,
Premier of New South Wales between 1901 and 1905.
Helen and William returned to live in Toorak near
Helen’s parents, at the villa which was their wedding gift,
‘Wyahla’ in Clendon Road, now popularly known as the
Toorak Heroes’ Club. Though the area of land on which
the house stands has been subdivided and has undergone
extensive renovations, the house still stands at 72 Clendon
Road and has belonged to the Toorak R.S.L. Memorial
Trust since 1958.
Helen supported a number of charitable causes and was
one of the first Life Members of The Lost Dogs’ Home.
Her name appears in the list of donors in the years
between 1914 and 1935, as does, intermittently, that of
her husband. She was a life member of the RSPCA and
also had a connection with the Royal District Nursing
Service, going back to 1919. In that year, she donated
money to the Melbourne District Nursing Society. 1919
was a crisis year for both Melbourne and the Society,
when the worst influenza epidemic ever struck the city.
The Royal District Nursing Service continued to receive
personal donations from Helen until 1947, some 24 years
after she had left Australia to reside permanently in Europe.
Yester Grange in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales.
9
One of the many examples of the legacy of Helen Schutt
was the recent opening and naming of the new Royal
District Nursing Service head office at Alma Road, St Kilda,
in inner Melbourne, supported by funds from the Trust.
Helen and William appear to be a kindly couple, shown
by their relationship with Anne Kate Coles, (née Shutt) a
second cousin of William, who became their housekeeper.
Mr Patrick Holder, who married Anne Kate’s granddaughter
Joan Morison, says that Helen Schutt’s kindness was often
talked about within the family. Helen and William Schutt
befriended Anne Kate when her marriage broke up, and
she became their companion/housekeeper, bringing her
daughter Kitty with her.
Later, when Helen left to live in Europe, William Schutt
bought the property at 14 Robinson Road, Malvern –
‘The Chalet’ in which he and Helen installed Anne Kate
and her daughter. William apparently stayed at
‘The Chalet’ on his travels between Europe and Australia.
On William’s death, the property passed to Helen, who
kept the arrangement in place. She also gave her
christening robe, dressing table silver and other mementoes
to her housekeeper. These have been kept in the family
first by Kate’s granddaughter, Joan Morison and on her
death, by Joan’s husband, Mr Patrick Holder.
William Schutt was a very public figure, taking a leading
part in Melbourne’s social and legal circles, although
details of their life together are very few. While it may
appear strange that relatively few details exist about their
lives, one of whom was very much in the public eye,
Helen’s second cousin Lallie Gilfillan says: “They were not
the sort of things spoken about in those days”.
‘Wyahla’ in Clendon Road, Toorak, now owned by Toorak R.S.L.
memorial trust.
The new Royal District Nursing Service head office at
Alma Road, St Kilda.
Toorak Presbyterian Church, (now Toorak Uniting Church)
where Helen was married.
Helen’s christening robe which she gave to her housekeeper.
Life in Europe
Life in Europe
10
One of the many unanswered questions about Helen
Macpherson Schutt is why she left Australia in December
1923 to reside in Europe. She was 49 and she and William
had been married for 22 years.
The reason generally accepted for her not returning
to Australia was her ‘intense dislike’ of sea travel.
On December 24, 1923, Helen left Melbourne on the
RMS ‘Ormonde’, a ship of the Orient Line of Royal Mail
Steamers under the command of Captain H.G. Staunton
and bound for ‘London via Ports’. Two days before the
ship’s departure, the local press records a ‘brilliant dance’
being held on board, attended by a glittering array of
Melbourne society, including the Clarkes, the Grimwades,
Symes and Fairbairns, among others.
Helen was accompanied on the voyage by her husband
William and her cousin, Lily Smith. Judge Schutt
disembarked in Colombo, while Helen and Lily travelled
on to Toulon. Mr Justice Macfarlan travelled on the same
voyage and his disembarkation destination was also
Colombo, which points to the possibility of legal
business there.
In October 1924, the British Australasian reports that
Helen and William, accompanied by Lily Smith, were
“staying at the Oxford and Cambridge Hotel in Paris for a
fortnight before leaving for Belgrade and Constantinople.
They have lately been in Denmark, Norway and Sweden”.
In 1925 the Schutts drove around Europe, with
Miss Audrey Wells as companion, before going to London
where William attended a congress of Universities of the
Empire. In June they were invited to a function to meet
Australia’s new Governor General, Sir John Baird.
In October 1925, the Schutts again made news because
of passport problems. British Australasian columnist
‘Phyllis’, writing ‘In the Looking Glass’ reports:
“Other Australians who have lately done some flying on
the continent, and also have had passport troubles are
Mr Justice Schutt of Victoria, and Mrs Schutt. They,
however, did not lose their passports and the annoyance,
of quite a serious kind to which they were subjected, arose
simply through the stupidity of Spanish officialdom at the
town of Irun on the French and Spanish border. The train
arrived there about midnight, and on examining the
passports the Spanish said those of Mr Justice Schutt and
Mrs Schutt were invalid, because they had not been visaed
by a Spanish consul in France. Protests from the travellers
and fellow passengers, informed on the subject, that the
visa was unnecessary for British passports, were in vain.
The officer declared that Australian passports were
different; they must be visaed and Mr Justice Schutt and
his wife were obliged to leave the train, and go back
across the border to Hendaye (on the Cote d’Argent).
Here it was not easy to find lodgings, but a representative
of the Duke of Alva accompanied the ill-used travellers
and assisted to find them. He was also very civil next day,
A Busy Diary: June and July 1925
British Australasian
June 11, 1925 Australia’s new Governor-General, Sir John
Baird, entertained by Mr Lee Neil at the Australia Pavilion
last Thursday. Invited guests included Mr Justice Schutt
and Mrs Schutt.
June 25, 1925 Mrs Anstruther (chairman) and the
Hospitality Committee of the Victorian League were again
At Home at 22, Eccleston Square, on Monday. Amongst
overseas guests were Mrs Schutt and Miss Wells.
July 9, 1925 Overseas Reception: Princess Helena Victoria
was present at the reception held on Monday at 11,
Carlton House Terrace, by Mrs Benjamin Guinness for
Australian visitors. Amongst guests Mr Justice and Mrs
Schutt. Mrs Amery held her usual Wednesday afternoon
reception for representatives of the Overseas Dominions
and other friends on July 8. Guests included Mr Justice
and Mrs Schutt.
July 23, 1925 Overseas Reception: The Duke and Duchess
of York gave at St James’ Palace an evening party on July
17. Guests included Mr Justice and Mrs Schutt.
11
12
and saw to the necessary – or rather unnecessary –
formalities regarding their passports, which as a matter
of fact, were perfectly in order, and would have required
no visa if the officious and troublesome person at Irun
had known his business and the regulations of his
own country”.
In early March 1927, the paper notes that among many
recent Australian visitors to Nice are Mrs Schutt of
Melbourne at the Hotel Splendid and in mid-April
“Mrs Schutt, who has been for some time on the Riviera,
is shortly going to Dalmatia with her husband who has
just arrived from Australia”.
In August, the Schutts were in Paris, after touring Scotland,
Ireland and Norway. After a week in Nice, they planned
to “motor back to Paris via Avignon, Pau and Biarritz”.
In November 1927, during a trip to Italy, William
met Mussolini. On November 24, The British
Australasian reports:
“The photo of Signor Mussolini reproduced on another
page was recently given by him to the Hon. W. Schutt late
of the Vic. Supreme Court, who had a rather rare privilege
for a visitor of being received by the Duce and found him
very pleasant and agreeable. He asked Mr. Schutt if he
had been in Italy before and hearing that he had been,
asked whether he found changes since his previous visit.
Mr. Schutt was able to assure Signor Mussolini that he
found many changes for the better which was doubtless
gratifying to the author of them. Italian trains, Mr. Schutt
tells me, as do other travellers, are now punctual and
one’s luggage on them is safe from theft, which was not
always so”.
In 1928, the Schutts are reported travelling together,
with William returning to Australia in January. Mrs.
Schutt, the paper reports “is remaining in Europe until his
return, about June of this year”. In August the same year,
William journeyed to Scotland, then took the Northern
Capitals tour of Scandinavia, while Helen remained
‘for the present’ in Paris. On William’s return by
mid-September, William and Helen stayed in London
at the Hotel Washington.
In October they were on the Continent, but spent two
weeks in London in November. The paper reports that
they are “going to the Riviera until January, after which
Mr Schutt may probably go to Wengen at Christmas for
winter sports. In January he is going to Melbourne in the
Otranto and return to England before long via the U.S.
Both Mr and Mrs Schutt have enjoyed excellent weather in
France, and a motor tour in the beautiful French chateau
country was all the more delightful because of the
sunshine. Perhaps some readers of this paper know what
an amusing companion Mr Schutt is. He has a stack of
good stories – unconnected with the ‘chestnuts’ family,
and tells them excellently”.
In the British Australasian dated 2 November 1933, just
weeks before William’s death, journalist Guy Innes
(whose wife was chairman of the hospitality committee
of the Commonwealth League) reports: “The Hon. William
Schutt and Mrs Schutt were recently motoring in France
when their tour came to a sudden and unfortunate end at
Nice, when Mrs Schutt developed acute appendicitis and
had to undergo an immediate operation. It was happily
successful and Mrs Schutt, who was taken to a nursing
home at Cimiez is now convalescent. Mr Schutt, who is now
in London, had intended coming to England earlier, leaving
Mrs Schutt in the Riviera, as she prefers the south to
England at this time of the year. It was three weeks however
before she was sufficiently recovered for Mr Schutt to feel
happy in making his visit to London, though Mrs Schutt has
many friends on the Riviera where she spends much time”.
When Helen was in Europe, she stayed in Switzerland at
both the Hotel Splendid and the Hotel Eden in Montreux
and at the famous Hotel Majestic on the French Riviera
at Cannes, still regarded as one of the great hotels of the
world. Her Will describes Helen as being “formerly of
Melbourne in the State of Victoria and of Nice in France
but late of Cannes in France”.
When Helen left Australia to live in Europe, she made
precise arrangements to have particular personal gifts
to be dispatched to various members of the family. These
included pieces of jewellery for her nieces Lallie and
Mary Joan when they turned 21. Lallie’s gift was a bar
brooch with five lovely graduated diamonds while her
sister also received a bar brooch “very much in fashion at
the time – and quite magnificent – a row of diamonds and
sapphires”. Helen also left a wedding gift of a pair of
Antoinette Brandeis paintings for Lallie.
13
A good correspondent, Helen’s postcards from Europe
show an interest in architecture, perhaps inherited from
her architect grandfather, John Smith.
In 1929, Helen sent for her cousin, Ada Howard, to meet
her in Europe to spend a year travelling. Lallie Gilfillan
particularly recalls one aspect of Helen’s invitation to
Ada. “She was asked to meet Helen and it was to be in
a year’s time. I was young and couldn’t imagine anyone
having to wait a whole year to go overseas” .
After William’s death, Helen’s time abroad is shrouded in
mystery. From the little to be gleaned from her postcards,
she travelled to England and various parts of Europe.
Though apparently a regular correspondent, only one
letter and several postcards remain. These are of
architectural views in various parts of Europe with brief
comments about the weather or enquiries about the health
of those in Australia. She paid the school fees to enable
both Lallie and her sister Mary Joan to attend the
Hermitage School in Geelong and one of her postcards
enquires about Mary Joan’s progress. Helen signed the
postcards with the initials ‘H.M.S.’, which also appeared
on her dressing table set of silver brushes and mirrors.
Though Helen spent time in the South of France, she
apparently did not become part of the coterie of British
who regularly wintered there as her name does not appear
in the local newsletter published for this group. She may
have preferred Switzerland, coming to the South of France
for part of the winter.
Some of Helen’s possessions.
A letter to her cousin Lallie in Australia.
Helen’s silver brushes and mirrors engraved with her initials HMS.
The Husband: William John
The Husband: William John Schutt
14
By contrast with Helen, William Schutt’s life was of
the most public kind. He attracted headlines, whether
travelling abroad, making judgments at home, talking
about billiards or giving witty after-dinner speeches.
Universally described as a man of warmth, geniality and
compassion, William Schutt had a fine mind, a great wit
and was an excellent sportsman who played Australian
Rules football for Essendon for three years – 1889, 1890
and 1891 when the Club won its first premiership at the
East Melbourne Cricket Ground. In those days, there were
no finals, the winning team being the one that won the
most matches during the year and therefore was top of the
ladder. In 1891, Essendon lost only one match to Geelong.
A photo of William with the winning team is in Essendon’s
Hall of Fame.
William’s father was the well-respected, English-born
John Schutt, Librarian at the Supreme Court of Victoria
for some fifty years whose portrait hangs in the main
chamber of the Library. William’s mother was Irish born
Sarah Jane (née Kenney). Born in Richmond, an inner
suburb of Melbourne, on May 16, 1868, William was
brought up in the Schutt family home, a bluestone house
in Melbourne Road, Spotswood, near the corner of
Hudson Road. Schutt Street, Newport, is named after
his father, John Schutt.
Arthur Schutt, founder of the Schutt Flying Academy
based at Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport, was the
grandson of John Schutt and nephew of William Schutt.
According to Mr Len Schutt of Williamstown who holds
the Schutt family records, dating back to 1611, ‘Schutt’
was originally spelt ‘Shutt’, with the family being of
English heritage. The spelling of the name was changed
to ‘Schutt’ in the late 18th century, possibly in admiration
of the German ancestry of the British monarchy of the day.
William attended the local state school and then went to
Scotch College, which he attended from 1884. He was one
of the foundation members of the Old Scotch Collegians’
Club and became its president in 1916.
In 1886 he was Dux in Classics and was awarded a
first-class honour in the public examinations, winning him
a resident scholarship to Ormond College at the University
of Melbourne. He later became a benefactor to the
College, donating both funds and books to the College
Library. He took his BA, LL B in 1891 and was admitted
to the Bar on April 1, 1892. He took his MA, LL M in
1901, the same year he and Helen married.
In the latter part of World War 1, William Schutt was
legal adviser and intelligence officer in the Navy Office,
holding the honorary rank of lieutenant-commander.
William was a council member of the University of
Melbourne between 1923 and 1927 and represented the
University at the third congress of the Universities of the
Empire, held in London in July 1925.
The National Memorials Committee records that his term
on the Supreme Court was ‘regrettably short’. Appointed
as a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court in 1919, he retired
in 1926 at the relatively young age of 59. “He had built
up a very large practice, especially in equity, but like the
leading men of his time, he never took silk”.
The Law Institute Journal, in a feature on lawyers from
the 1850s onwards in the Williamstown area (October,
1971) mentions the fact that William presided in 1922 at
the controversial Colin Ross murder trial for the notorious
‘Gun Alley’ murder and was also a member of the Full
Court which dismissed the appeal. In 2000, the Colin Ross
trial was again subject to public scrutiny.
William Schutt, a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court in 1919.
He retired in 1926 at the relatively young age of 59.
Schutt
15
Although there was speculation at the time that the Ross
trial was a factor in William Schutt’s decision to resign
from the Bench in 1926, there was a four year hiatus
between the trial and his resignation, making a link unlikely.
A Savage Tale
From ‘History of the first 50 Years of the Melbourne
Savage Club’ By Dave Dow
“There are occasions when circumstances lead to an
innocent man being charged in a law court, and it
happened that a member of the Club Orchestra was
required to appear before Mr Justice Schutt. The lawyer
for the defence, L B Cussen, also a Savage, gained for his
client the verdict of ‘not guilty’. Later, on the same day,
Cussen visited the Club, where he was informed that
Mr Justice Schutt desired to see him in the President’s
private room. Somewhat perturbed as receiving such a
request so soon after the rising of the Court, Cussen’s
trepidation disappeared when he was greeted with:
‘Have a drink. I want to thank you for saving our
first violin’”.
William Schutt had a great love of billiards and must have
been pleased that on what was to be his last voyage, the
famous Australian billiard player Walter Lindrum was
also a passenger. In one of his many after-dinner speeches,
William spoke to the Victorian Amateur Billiard
Association, expressing his great admiration for the game.
“I have played it for many years’, he said. ‘In fact, some
say I have retired from the Bench so that I can perfect
my game!”
William Schutt was a dedicated club man, belonging to
the Melbourne Club, Melbourne Savage Club, the Old
Scotch Collegians’, RACV and Bohemians’ clubs. He
was the sixth president of the Melbourne Savage Club,
from 1918 to 1931, from which he resigned because of
continued absences overseas. He and R.G. Menzies were
the two longest-serving presidents of the Club. A pencil
drawing of William Schutt by George W Lambert hangs
there today.
It was not only in his professional life that William Schutt
was well loved. Lallie Gilfillan (William’s second cousin
by marriage) remembers him well, from his visits to her
family home ‘Illilawa’ in the Riverina, a property owned
by shareholders including Robert and William Smith and
James Macpherson.
Cartoon of Billy Schutt by David Low.
By permission of the National Library of Australia.
A farewell poem to Billy from the Melbourne Savage Club.
16
Lallie’s earliest memory of William was when she was
about five years old. She recalls William Schutt as “such
good fun, a man who enjoyed people, enjoyed life”. He
loved the theatre and liked being with his young cousin,
driving both Lallie and her mother to Canberra from the
Riverina when Parliament House was first built.
She recalls William’s love of dressing up, for which he
had ample opportunity on his many trips to Europe, where
such nights were regular occurrences on board ship. “He
had two favourite costumes”, Lallie said. “One was John
Bull and the other, Cardinal Wolsey. He looked wonderful
in both of them!”
William Schutt’s life came to an early end, when, returning
to Australia through the Red Sea on the P & O Liner s.s.
‘Cathay’ on November 30, 1933, he fell heavily down a
companionway and died on board ship. He was buried at
sea. The cause recorded on the ship’s records is
“Concussion of the Brain”. He was 65.
On his death, Mr R G Menzies K C, then Victorian State
Attorney General, paid tribute to him, reported in
The Herald, December 1, 1933:
“‘He was a great amateur of life’, said Mr Menzies today.
He was tremendously in love with life, and he was
tremendously interested in men. He possessed an acute
and particularly well-furnished mind, but his interests were
always much more the interests of humanity than of
abstractions. It is safe to say that there never was a more
popular man in modern times either at the Bar or on the
Bench”.
William left an estate of £53,000, the major legacy of
£10,000 going to his ‘dear wife’ Helen and the remainder
to his sisters Jane and Frances and several close friends.
A Poetic Tribute from a Fellow Savage
Billy
William John Schutt
Savage – 1899 – 1933
No need is there for mark or monument
Or any graven thing to speak to us
Of him, our man, our brother and our chief
Already formed in everlasting signs
Upon tablets of our memory.
The record of his graciousness is writ,
And one shall say, he had a nimble wit.
Another “we may never see his like”,
And some will silent be, their grateful hearts
Big with remembrance of an outstretched hand
That grips their own what time the shadows fell
But at that parting how we would unite
And voice together this the common thought
That we do hold him “As few men could
He lived, he laughed, he loved, he understood”.
W.A. Tainish
William on board a ship dressed as Cardinal Wolsey.
Helen’s Landowner Forebears
17
Helen’s Landowner Forebears: The Macphersons
Helen was particularly fortunate in her forebears: on
both sides they were hardworking and energetic. On the
Macpherson side they were good judges of land and
excellent farmers while the Smiths were entrepreneurs
with a talent in business and blessed with an eye for
property with potential.
Sheep farmer John Macpherson and Helen Watson, both
from Skye, Inverness-shire in Scotland, who were to
become Helen Schutt’s grandparents, were married on
May 22, 1825, just days before they set out for Australia.
The marriage produced eleven children, the youngest
of whom, Jane Priscilla, was the mother of Helen
Macpherson Schutt.
At the time the Macphersons travelled, ships carrying
passengers to the Australian colonies were essentially
cargo carriers, with passengers regarded as a source of
additional profit. They travelled cabin class rather than
steerage and received the same food allowance as seamen
and observed regulations such as washing, cleansing,
airing and sprinkling the berths with vinegar. All lights in
private cabins went out at 11pm. Hot water, boiled in the
coppers, was supplied to passengers each morning.
The arrival of the ‘Triton’ was recorded in the ‘Sydney
Gazette’, with John Macpherson’s wife listed as
‘Mrs Helen Watson’, carrying on the long held highland
custom of married women retaining their maiden names.
The Macpherson family moved to an area near Bathurst,
New South Wales where John’s father Peter Macpherson
was given a Crown grant of 640 acres in the County of
Cook by Sir Thomas Brisbane. The area is the location of
the present day small town of Portland, New South Wales,
northwest of Lithgow. Though John and Helen initially
stayed with the family, in 1829 John made application for
a grant of land near that of his father, in the Bathurst district.
Despite a glowing reference testifying to his ‘diligence
and integrity’ John Macpherson was not immediately
eligible for a grant of land because he was already
employed as an overseer, with his first duty to work
on his employer’s land.
Although John Macpherson had applied for land near
Bathurst and as close as possible to that granted to his
father, he received instead 640 acres at ‘Canbery in the
County of Murray’ – now Canberra, Australia’s national
capital, which he took up in October, 1831.
John Macpherson was the first resident landholder in
Canberra, and his wife Helen and their children the first
white family to live in what is now the Australian Capital
Territory. One of their children, also John, the first white
boy born in Limestone Plains, grew up to become, briefly,
Premier of Victoria.
John Macpherson’s ownership of this valuable land
laid the foundation of the wealth passed down through
the Macpherson family and eventually to Helen
Macpherson Schutt.
John MacPherson
of Nerrin Nerrin
Helen MacPherson
(née Watson)
Besides the newly-weds, the Macpherson party consisted
of John’s father, Peter Macpherson, his wife Catherine and
their other children Peter, Duncan, Hugh, Annabella, Jane,
Catherine and Margaret. While the exact reason for their
departure is unknown, the unrest caused by the Highland
Clearances which took place between 1782 and 1854,
where landowners reclaimed more and more land for
stock, thereby displacing traditional tenants, may have
been a factor.
The Macphersons sailed to Australia on the ‘Triton’, a
square stemmed, three-masted carvel built ship weighing
405 tons. Commanded by Captain James Crear, the
‘Triton’ took almost five months on its voyage, reaching
Sydney on October 28, 1825. Though built in 1815, it had
been bought by the Australian Company in 1823 and
refitted, making the space between decks a relatively
luxurious two metres.
‘A Snug Plain’: The Canberra
‘A Snug Plain’: The Canberra Legacy
18
Although the romantic story that surrounds the acquisition
of John Macpherson’s land at Limestone Plains in 1831
says it was given for his part in the capture of a
bushranger, nothing in the official records supports this
claim. John named the property ‘Springbank’ and its
homestead was on the high ground that today forms
Springbank Island in Lake Burley Griffin.
The land is described in official papers as “being situated
at Canbury, Limestone Plain, and located on the eastern
slopes of Black Mountain and to the west of Lieutenant
John Joshua Moore’s 1,000 acres”. The property was
bounded on the east by land belonging to a Mr Campbell.
John Macpherson’s grant was opposed by Lt. Moore,
a non-resident landholder, who had taken out a
ticket-of-occupation for the land in 1824. On hearing
of the Macpherson bid for the land, he wrote to
Surveyor-General Hoddle in less than enthusiastic terms:
“I beg leave to inform you that I am desirous of retaining
the 1,000 acres already in my possession. It is called and
known by the name Canburry”.
Eventually it was agreed that Moore retain the ridge
and the name ‘Canburry’ for his land, whilst the basin be
shared with Macpherson. Quit rent was paid from January
1, 1839 and the Crown grant was finally issued on January
30, 1844 at an annual quit rent of five pounds, six
shillings and eight pence ‘for ever’. In this case, ‘for ever’
did not last long, as all freehold land was reclaimed for
the establishment of the Australian Capital Territory
in 1912. A notice published in the New South Wales
Government Gazette of the 19 February, 1840, includes
the name of John Macpherson among those who had been
granted licenses to ‘graze stock beyond the boundaries
of location’.
Macpherson’s land appears in the writings of visiting
Polish naturalist, Dr John Lhotsky. In ‘A Journey from
Sydney to the Australian Alps’ he describes it:
“Proceeding about a mile further, we encountered a
snug plain, where Mr. McPherson has a small but well
managed allotment of land. This plain extends about one
mile in length, one extremity stretching towards south
west and the mountains, the other north east towards
Mojora Hill.
It is a tempe-like spot, but, being away from Limestone
Creek and its stream valley, water is not sufficiently
plentiful.”
Frederick Watson’s ‘History of Canberra’ records that:
“On 11th May 1841, the foundation stone of the church of
St John the Baptist was laid by the Revd Edward Smith…
Among those present at the laying of the foundation stone,
there were J McPherson of Springbank and his family”.
Springbank had a variety of occupants until it was
reclaimed by the Commonwealth Government in 1912,
including serving two years as a school under James
Abernethy. A Cambridge man and Duntroon tutor, a
Mr Evans, occupied it for some time until its purchase
by the Sullivans in the 1880s.
Before the great drought of 1901, the largest and most
successful dairy in the Queanbeyan district was on
Springbank and Canberra’s first Parliament House, opened
in 1927, was situated ‘a mile to the west’ of Springbank
and Yarralumla.
A view across part of Springbank, 1927 (Sydney Mail 11/5/1927).
By permission of the National Library of Australia.
A view of Springbank Island in Lake Burley Griffin, where the
family homestead once stood.
Legacy
19
In 1914, Sydney Stock and Station Agents Gair, Sloane
and Co. gave a detailed valuation of Springbank’s 1955
acres of freehold land. 115 acres were listed as arable
flats, 53 as dark soil, 570 wheat land and the remaining
1217, grazing land.
Agent’s Description of Springbank
The 115 acres of alluvial flats had a frontage to the
Molonglo River to the south, Scott’s Paddock on the West,
the two huts, Woolshed and Pisa on the East and Black
Mountain on the North. The agents’ description is nothing
short of glowing:
“SOIL: Is rich dark alluvial friable and fertile loam about
12 feet deep, resting on a gravel bed, providing good
draining – liable to be inundated by the overflow water
from the Molonglo River annually, leaving a rich deposit
of alluvium, rendering it admirably suited for the growth
of lucerne and corn and comparing favourably with a
great deal of the Hunter River land. The roots of the
lucerne penetrate down to the perennial water supply
which percolates through the underlying porous bed from
the River and from the Creek flowing through the centre of
this area, providing natural irrigation in the dryest season
– this creek has never been known to run dry.”
The arable flats were valued then at 30 pounds per acre
and of the timber standing on Springbank, the agents
record that it was:
“Chiefly Iron-bark, White gum, Box, Peppermint, a few
cherry and oak trees. Ringbarked years ago and neglected
as a natural consequence, is now a dense mass of
undergrowth of young trees”. Their advice suggests that
the trees, “if thinned out and protected, would soon grow
into commercial value”.
In 1914, agents Messrs. Gair, Sloane & Co. put the total
value of the property at ‘ten thousand and twenty two
pounds, ten shillings and no pence’. This valuation
included the 1955 acres of freehold land, the Homestead
Buildings, Yards, Cow Bails, Piggery, Buggy-shed,
Woolshed, yards and three dams, eleven hundred willow
trees and an orchard.
In April 1923, in a note entitled ‘The Future’, Dr John
Macpherson, a grandson of John Macpherson and doctor
whose practice was in Sydney’s Macquarie Street wrote:
“The original grant (of land) is to be converted in its
lower part, into West Lake, Canberra. The upper part
will form the grounds of the Canberra University. Black
Mountain will always remain a conspicuous feature”.
Dr Macpherson visited Springbank in 1925 and 1926 and
records: “There were many fine old trees in the garden
and orchard, and it is believed that some of the beautiful
old willows on the Molonglo were planted by MacPherson
himself. In the great floods of 1925 the old house was
still high and dry, although surrounded by water”.
The old ‘Springbank’ area includes Acton, Fellows and
Willows Ovals, the Australian National University,
including the National Film and Sound Archive building,
the Sir Roy Grounds designed Academy of Science, and
also University House. The new National Museum of
Australia is on Acton Peninsula, directly opposite
Springback Island.
While much of ‘Springbank’ was flooded when Lake
Burley Griffin came into being, a small island carries the
name of Springbank and yacht races are held around it
today.
That the area of Canberra held great promise for the future
was evident in the 1830s and not only to John Macpherson.
Dr John Lhotsky, passing through the area in 1834,
predicted that “at no distant period, a fine town will
exist..”. Australia had to wait another 77 years before the
prophesied ‘fine town’ came into being with Canberra as
the choice for Australia’s national capital.
Australia Parliament House opening 1927 (Vest Collection).
By permission of the National Library of Australia.
‘Splendid land’: The Western D
‘Splendid Land’: The Western District
20
In 1839, seeking new pastures, John Macpherson moved
to what was then known as the Port Phillip District of
New South Wales (later Victoria), leasing his land in
Canberra. On July 1st, 1840, his name appears in the
Government Gazette as having a license to graze stock
beyond the ‘limits of location’ of both the Melbourne and
Geelong districts. In the same year, he also acquired ‘two
roods of land in the town of Portland’ for the sum of £251.
In December, 1841, he took up 25,000 acres near
Casterton, in Victoria’s Western District which he named
‘Springbank Station’, the second time he had used the
name Springbank. Near neighbours, the Hentys, arrived
in the district in 1835, bringing with them the first merino
sheep in the district. The Hentys owned three properties
close to ‘Springbank Station’: Sandford Estate
(12,000 acres), the neighbouring property to ‘Springbank’
Muntham Estate, of 60,000 acres and Merino Downs,
the family station of 14,000 acres.
Today, the Casterton property formerly known as
‘Springbank Station’ is reduced to 1,000 acres which
includes the land where the original homestead stood.
Before John Macpherson bought the property, it was
known as ‘Cattle Station’.
John Macpherson also acquired property closer to Melbourne
in 1847, buying two parcels of land in Moonee Ponds. The
first parcel was 90 acres, for which he paid £432 and the
second 29 acres, for £87.
The Western District property most closely linked to the
Macpherson name is ‘Nerrin Nerrin’, said to be an
Aboriginal name, meaning ‘many waters’. The lakes
within its boundaries are Lake Oonah, Lake Challicum,
Lake Nerrin and Lake Macpherson.
The historian Alexander Henderson writes that ‘Nerrin
Nerrin’ was taken up by John Macpherson in August,
1846 and consisted of 52,027 acres of ‘splendid land’,
which, after improvements, could carry 40,000 sheep. It
extended from Streatham along Fiery Creek for thirteen
Nerrin Nerrin homestead.
William Duncan McPherson of Nerrin Nerrin.
21
District
miles to Lake Bolac, eventually became freehold and with
additional purchases of land, its area increased to 62,000
acres, said to be the largest freehold station in Victoria at
the time.
Michael Cannon, in ‘Australia in the Victorian Age: 2’
lists the Macphersons as one of the seventeen Victorian
families (among them the Armytages, Chirnsides, Clarkes,
Manifolds, Moffatts, Robertsons and Russells) that, by
1893, owned a total of two million acres of Victoria’s
‘best freehold land’.
John Macpherson’s third son, William Duncan, lived at
‘Nerrin Nerrin’ for 45 years, firstly as manager and later
as managing trustee. ‘Nerrin Nerrin’ and its lakes were
famous for their game. ‘Senex’, a columnist for ‘The
Pastoralists’ Review’, writes in June 1910 of the lakes
being “alive with ducks” and also that the lakes were
a “favourite resort of that curious summer visitor, the
Cape Barren Goose”. ‘Senex’ also records that it was
on ‘Nerrin Nerrin’ that wheat-growing on the plains
first commenced.
After ‘Nerrin Nerrin’, John Macpherson acquired two
more properties, Croxton, at nearby Penshurst which
extended from Lake Linlithgow to the vicinity of Mount
Pierrepoint was south-east of Hamilton to the south
of Mount Sturgeon. The area of Croxton was 14,727 acres
and although it was subdivided after Macpherson’s death,
the family retained an interest in it until 1910.
Macpherson also owned ‘The Wilderness’, a subdivision
of Koonong Wootong run in the Portland Bay district,
which he held for four years from February, 1864 until
March, 1868, before its sale to Mr Charles Rowe. Including
leasehold, ‘The Wilderness’ was 57,000 acres and carried
25,000 sheep and 50 cattle.
The undoubted acumen of John Macpherson both in land
acquisitions and farming abilities were recognised as early
as 1847, where in his book, ‘Phillipsland’, the Reverend
Dr John Dunmore Lang wrote of him as both “…another
remarkably successful colonist from the Highlands of
Scotland…” and “…a highly experienced practical
farmer”.
Matriarch Helen Macpherson (nee Watson) died at
Nicholson Street, Fitzroy on May 18th, 1872, aged 67 years.
John Macpherson died in Melbourne on April 9, 1875,
aged 77. His name is remembered in Canberra with
MacPherson Bridge in Ward Road within the grounds of
the Australian National University and Macpherson Street,
O’Connor, a suburb of Canberra, named in his honour in
1950 with the designation ‘Pioneer-settler at
‘Springbank’, Canberra’.
Far in the future, his hard work and gradually accumulated
wealth were to have lasting effects on the lives of many
Victorians through his granddaughter, Helen Schutt and
the Helen Macpherson Schutt Trust.
The Macphersons in Australia
The Macphersons in Australia
22
Jane Priscilla was the youngest of the eleven children
of John Macpherson and Helen Watson and became the
mother of Helen Macpherson Schutt. Their six other
daughters were Catherine, Helen Jane, Jessie Ann, Joan
Mary, Isabella and Christina Elizabeth. The sons were
Peter, John Alexander, William Duncan and James Philip.
The eldest child, Peter Macpherson, was born at Bathurst,
New South Wales on July 2, 1826 and educated at Dr John
Dunmore Lang’s Australian College, Sydney. His
distinguished academic career continued at Edinburgh
University, where he took his M.A. degree with honours.
Ian MacPherson, Minister of the Uniting Church, now of
Rockingham, Western Australia, is Peter Macpherson’s
grandson. In a study of Peter’s life, he records a
contemporary description of him as “…most humble,
unselfish, cheerful and of great integrity, but if
encountered in controversy, a most formidable opponent”.
Peter Macpherson was disinherited by his father
because of his decision to enter the Free Church College.
Grandson Ian writes:
“The Free Church was characterised by being strongly
Calvinistic with emphases on the necessity and sufficiency
of the bible for faith and practice; the doctrine of human
wickedness and depravity; predestination and God’s
mercies towards the elect”.
On matters of social behaviour, the Free Church was far
more vigorous than the ‘Moderates of the Synod of
Australia’; condemning ‘beastly intoxication’; the reading
of books of fiction or fancy; the running of lotteries and
attendance at balls.
Theologians in Scotland and Australia recognised
Peter Macpherson as a scholar of the highest order. He
established the ‘Standard’, a monthly periodical published
between 1859 and 1861 and was a recognised authority
on philology, especially Aboriginal languages, publishing
numerous articles on the subject. His pieces on
Presbyterianism, written during an unsettled period
for the church, are well respected.
Peter’s first marriage in 1866, to Margaret ended in
tragedy with the death of both Margaret and their only
daughter in 1870.
Peter married again early in 1886 but died the same year
at his home, 187 Albion Street, Surry Hills in Sydney. His
widow, Isabella, established a home for ‘waifs and strays’
and among those who sought shelter with her was
Australian poet and writer Henry Lawson.
Several of Peter Macpherson’s scrapbooks, pamphlets
and other church-related papers are held in Melbourne’s
La Trobe Library. The Mitchell Library in Sydney lists
about 6 entries under his name, many related to Aboriginal
dialects.
In common with many historical records of the time,
there is little detail of the lives of the women of the
family. The Macphersons’ second child, Catherine, was
born on February 6th, 1828. She married the Reverend
Allan Macvean, a leading light in the Presbyterian Church
and its Moderator in 1880-81. During his time in this
position, the first conference of all the Presbyterian
Churches of Australasia was held, with a view to federation.
Allan Macvean was also a theological scholar of high
repute. Scottish born, he had interests in pastoral property,
and owned Ki Station on the Lower Murray. The Macveans
had ten children, seven daughters and three sons. Catherine
died at Middle Brighton, a seaside suburb of Melbourne,
on December 30, 1898, aged 70.
Helen Jane Macpherson, the Macphersons’ third child,
was born in Limestone Plains (now Canberra) on
January 27, 1830, and was the first white child born in
what is now Australia’s national capital. Helen Jane married
Charles James Howard and settled in Geelong, Victoria.
Reverend Peter Macpherson, MA.
23
Five Macpherson children were born at Limestone Plains
and a family baptism for four of them – Helen Jane, Jessie
Anne, Joan Mary and John Alexander – was performed at
Scots Church, Sydney, on June 12, 1836, by the Reverend
John Dunmore Lang.
Among the six children born to Helen’s aunt, Joan Mary
Macpherson, was Christina Elizabeth Macpherson-Smith
who had a distinguished career in the First World War
helping refugees and children in distress. She worked in
Bosnia and a grateful country awarded her the Order of
St Sava, never before given to a woman. She was buried
in the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Dubrovnik in
May, 1931.
Jessie Anne, the fourth child and third daughter, was born
on October 15, 1832. She married the Reverend Thomas
Heron and they had one daughter and nine sons.
The Macphersons’ second son, John Alexander, born
on October 10, 1833, achieved the greatest public
prominence of all of the children, becoming Chief
Secretary, then Premier of Victoria for a brief period
from September 20, 1869 to April 9, 1870.
John Alexander was educated at Melbourne’s Scotch
College and then at Edinburgh University. He qualified
as a barrister but chose a life on the land.
In 1858, in the Victorian Western District town of
Hamilton, John Alexander married Irish-born Louisa
Elizabeth Fetherstonhaugh, daughter of the local Police
Magistrate, Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh. His family,
the historian Henderson records, dates back to the
Fetherstonhaughs of Brackley Castle, County Westmeath
in Ireland, where they settled in about 1600. One of their
children, John, played cricket for London County with
Dr W G Grace.
By 1864, at the age of 31, John Alexander had become
actively interested in politics. He unsuccessfully contested
the seat of Dundas in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.
Undaunted, shortly afterwards he stood for, and won,
the seat of Portland. When, in the following year, the
opportunity came to contest the Dundas seat, he campaigned
successfully and held the seat for twelve years.
As well as his brief time as Premier and Chief Secretary,
John Macpherson was also President of the Board of Land
and Works and Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey
in the third McCulloch ministry, from April 9, 1870 to
June 19, 1871. He was Chief Secretary in the fourth
McCulloch Ministry, from October 20, 1875 to May 31,
1877, when he retired from politics, settling in Surrey,
England. In 1875 he built the stately villa at 3 Lansell
Road, Toorak, now the Victorian headquarters of the
Country Women’s Association. In Hamilton, McPherson
Street, though spelt in one of the variants of the
Macpherson name, honours John Alexander Macpherson’s
contribution to the life of the State of Victoria.
John Alexander MacPherson.
The stately villa John Macpherson built in 1875 in Toorak, now
the Victorian headquarters of the Country Women’s Association.
24
Photographs of William Duncan Macpherson, the seventh
child and third son, show a man of genial appearance with
an impressive set of walrus whiskers. Born at Limestone
Plains on October 14, 1837, William Macpherson lived
at the family property ‘Nerrin Nerrin’ for 45 years as
manager, then managing trustee. William married an Irish
woman, Mary Moffat Wilson, whom he met in Ireland in
1864. On his return to Ireland in 1868, they married and
had two daughters, Helen and Emily.
Little is recorded of the Macpherson’s eighth child,
Isabella, apart from the fact that she was born on
September 20, 1840, married Major Claudius Raven
and died on March 10, 1910.
John and Helen Macpherson moved to the Port Phillip
district of New South Wales, later to become Victoria, in
1839, acquiring property in both the Western District and
in Moonee Ponds, where their fourth son, James Philip,
was born on November 20, 1842. Also educated at Scotch
College, Melbourne, he was both Dux of the school and a
prominent member of the College cricket team. He studied
law and practiced as a solicitor, but was drawn to the land,
owning properties in Victoria and New South Wales.
William Smith married Christine Elizabeth Macpherson.
James also had interests in politics, becoming a member
of the Victorian Legislative Council for Nelson province
in 1886, a seat held until his death in 1891. There were
no children from his marriage to Frances Morton.
The Macphersons’ tenth child, Christina Elizabeth, was
born on December 17, 1844. Despite family folklore, the
Christina Elizabeth of this Macpherson family has no
connection with the Christina Elizabeth Macpherson who
played ‘Waltzing Matilda’ while A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson
was a house guest in 1894 at Dagworth Station at Winton,
Queensland.
Christina was the first of the three wives of William
Smith, brother of Robert Smith. They were married
on August 26, 1869 and Christina died two years later,
on October 3, 1871 at East Melbourne. Born in Melrose,
Scotland, and a partner in the timber business established
in Melbourne, William was an identity in Melbourne’s
commercial life. A Director of the Colonial Bank of
Australasia for over thirty years, he became Deputy
Governor under Sir William Clarke. He was a director of
several companies and a partner in three Riverina stations,
including Mount Gipps Mining and Pastoral Company Ltd.,
later responsible for the rich finds at Broken Hill leading
to the establishment of BHP. He died at Montreux,
Switzerland on January 20, 1900.
Jane Priscilla Macpherson, the mother of Helen
Macpherson Schutt, was the Macphersons’ eleventh and
last child. Born in 1847 on January 15, little is recorded
of her life except that she married Robert Smith
(a brother of William Smith, who married Jane’s sister,
Christina Elizabeth). Jane Priscilla died on December 2,
1914 and is buried in the Smith family plot at Melbourne
General Cemetery.
Macphersons
25
Macpherson Family Members of Note
•
John Macpherson, Helen’s grandfather: the first resident landholder in Canberra;
•
Peter Macpherson, the eldest son: theologian, scholar and author, disinherited by his father upon
entering the Free Church;
•
John Alexander Macpherson, the second son and Helen’s uncle, Chief Secretary then briefly
Premier of Victoria in 1869;
•
James Philip Macpherson, the fourth son; member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Nelson province
from 1886 to 1891;
•
Catherine Macpherson, the second child: married Reverend Allan Macvean who became Moderator
of the Presbyterian Church;
•
Helen Jane Macpherson, the third child: the first white child born in what is now Australia’s national capital;
•
Christina Elizabeth Macpherson, the tenth child: married William Smith, a well known identity in Melbourne’s
commercial life of the late 19th century;
•
Jane Priscilla Macpherson, the eleventh child: married Robert Smith (brother of William) who became a
successful timber merchant and property owner in the late 1800s in Melbourne. Mother of benefactress
Helen Macpherson Schutt; and
•
Christina Elizabeth Macpherson-Smith, Helen’s niece: a distinguished career in the First World War.
Worked in Bosnia and was awarded the Order of St Sava.
26
Life Lines
Life Lines: The Macphersons
22 May 1825
John Macpherson and Helen Watson, later to become Helen’s grandparents, leave Scotland with John’s
father Peter, his wife and seven other children.
28 October 1825
Macpherson party arrives in Sydney.
c. 1826
Peter Macpherson given grant of land near Bathurst.
1829
John applies for land near Bathurst to be near his father.
1831
Instead of Bathurst, John receives a grant in Canberra.
1839
John leases his land in Canberra and moves to the Western District of what later becomes Victoria.
1841
John takes up 25,000 acres near Casterton, also in the Western District and buys land in the nearby
town of Portland.
1846
John takes up the 52,000 acre property ‘Nerrin Nerrin’ also in the Western District.
1847
John buys property in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne.
c. 1850
John buys Croxton, near Penshurst in the Western District, which stays in the family until 1910.
1864
John buys ‘The Wilderness’, a 57,000 acre property in the Portland Bay district.
1868
John sells ‘The Wilderness’.
18 May 1872
Helen Macpherson, Helen Schutt’s grandmother, dies.
9 April 1875
John Macpherson, Helen Schutt’s grandfather, dies.
The Smiths of Scot land
The Smiths of Scotland
27
Helen’s father, Robert Smith, came from a long line
of Border Scots, whose lineage can be traced to at least
1613. They lived in the village of Darnick near Melrose,
which lies between the River Tweed and the triple
Eildon Hills.
Melrose is important in Scottish history, with a monastery
established in the seventh century and later, in 1136,
Melrose Abbey, recognised as one of the most beautiful
ecclesiastical buildings in the country.
The importance of the Smiths to Scotland is recognised
by three monuments within the grounds of Melrose
Abbey, marking the lives of 27 of the family, including
Robert, Helen Schutt’s father.
The great 12th century King Robert the Bruce asked that
his heart be buried at Melrose but while on his deathbed,
legend says he asked a friend, Sir James Douglas, to take
it to the Crusades. Sir James was on his way with his
cargo when he was killed in Spain. It was long believed
that the cylinder holding the mummified heart had been
secretly returned to Melrose and buried in the grounds of
the Abbey. In 1996, archaeologists unravelled the riddle,
authenticating that the cylinder is buried in the Abbey
grounds in what historical societies described as an
event of ‘huge significance in terms of Scotland’s
heritage and history’.
Robert Smith, Helen’s father.
The most prominent member of the Smith family was
John Smith, Robert Smith’s father and Helen’s grandfather.
The life of John Smith (1782-1864), is closely linked
with one of Scotland’s most famous sons, writer
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), author of the famous romantic
and historical series known as the Waverley novels.
Born in 1782 and the fifth of nine children, John Smith’s
life as architect, sculptor and builder spanned a long
career which left a permanent mark on the landscape
of Scotland.
John Smith’s diary shows a man of energy and charm with
an ability to move at all levels of society. He was equally
accepted in his own social circles of traders and
businessmen and by the nobility and gentry, including
the Earl of Buchan and Sir Walter Scott, who are both
mentioned frequently in his diary.
On May 31st, 1818, John Smith married Alison Purves
and the event is recorded in his diary as one both tender
and solemn:
“Was married to Alison Purves by Mr Thomson, got home
to dinner about five, had a very merry party, kept
it up till midnight, and thus terminates the most important
step in my life”.
Melrose Abbey.
28
John and Alison had 14 children and all but Robert Smith
are recorded in the Old Parish Register of Melrose, 799
Volume 5, Melrose Roxburghshire. Scottish researcher,
Betty Iggo, says that the omission of Robert is not
surprising, as the register has not been kept systematically.
However, later censuses show his birth as occurring
between William, born 17th December 1833 and Alice,
born 9th November 1836.
Although John Smith’s diary had previously recorded his
association with Sir Walter Scott, his work load increased
around 1820 when he worked steadily on changes to
‘Abbotsford’. A modern travel writer says that Scott
christened the property ‘Abbotsford’ because it stood
on land where the monks of nearby Melrose Abbey used
to cross the river in days gone by. When Sir Walter Scott
moved to ‘Abbotsford’ in 1812, complete with family,
domestic servants, farm animals and dogs, the property
consisted of 110 acres of land and a small home which
Sir Walter intended to increase by alterations to the house
itself and by additional buildings.
John Smith was responsible for some of these new
buildings and for some of the changes to ‘Abbotsford’.
1822 was a busy year for him and for those he employed.
The Guide to Abbotsford, written for today’s traveller,
describes John Smith’s activities:
“He and his brother were the premier builders in the
Borders at this time, operating from the ancient village
of Darnick. Thomas supervised the actual building work,
while John devoted much of his time to drawing up the
plans for their numerous projects and attending to
accounts. He designated himself as ‘Architect and
The graves of the Smiths at Melrose Abbey, Scotland.
Sculptor’, but he could also have used the term ‘civil
engineer’ had it been current then, for many Border
bridges owe their existence to his talent”.
John was employed as a sculptor by the eccentric Earl of
Buchan, a man keen on the erection of statues and busts.
The memorial to Sir William Wallace (c.1274-1305),
Scotland’s national hero who led the Scottish national
resistance against Edward 1 was commissioned by the
Earl of Buchan in 1814 and is ‘of red sandstone, 22 feet
high’. Wallace is said to have worn a belt made of an
English tax-collector’s skin.
In 1850, two of John Smith’s sons, Charles and John,
set out for Australia, from where they maintained strong
family links with their father. Thereafter, John Smith’s
diary frequently records him purchasing timber for the
Australian business.
John Smith died at Darnick on September 13, 1864, aged
81 and his obituary describes him “as the architect and
builder of some of the most conspicuous and beautiful
mansions in the district”.
The Smiths made a significant contribution to Scotland.
Patriarch, architect and builder John Smith left his sons a
legacy that helped them achieve success in a foreign land.
Charles and John, having gone to Australia in 1850, were
followed in 1854 by William and Tom and later by Robert,
George and James and for a time, their sister Jane. In
Australia, they maintained ties with their homeland
through letters, business and the family’s strong bonds
while contributing energetically to business life and
success in a new land.
Guide to Abbotsford, written for today’s traveller,
describes John Smith’s activities.
The Smiths in Australia
The Smiths in Australia
29
Adventurous, entrepreneurial and with a strong family
spirit were hallmarks of the seven Smith brothers who
decided to make new lives and opportunities for
themselves in Australia. In doing so, they preserved their
ties with Scotland through letters, through business deals
and by travel.
In 1850, Charles and John, the two eldest sons of John
Smith of Darnick and brothers of Robert Smith, came to
Australia. They were followed four years later by brothers
William and Thomas, aged respectively 20 and 22, who
left Liverpool on June 3, 1854 on the Morning Star, under
the command of Captain E.J. Allen. Brothers Robert and
George followed later, some time after 1854 and James
arrived in 1857.
They established themselves as timber merchants firstly in
Melbourne, called themselves C & J Smith, and are listed
in the Melbourne ratebooks of 1856 as carrying on this
business on land between 5 Albert Street and Victoria
Parade East Melbourne.
In September 1854, William wrote to his mother in
Scotland on his arrival in Australia:“We got on shore in
the afternoon by sailing up the Yarra Yarra, the whole of
us enjoying the scenery and everything else amazingly,
although it is nothing extraordinary, so glad were we after
our long captivity to set foot once more on terra firma. We
arrived at Chas. and John’s place on the top of Eastern
Hill in good time for tea and there met John in colonial
costume, high outside top boots and broad brimmed straw
hat looking very much as at home, fresh coloured and
looking well all though not very fat. He is a go-ahead
pushing man of business now and Charles and he do a
first rate trade paying about £50 a week to Draymen alone
for bringing goods from the wharf.” The timber yard,
William reported, sold “Timber Doors, Windows, and in
fact everything connected with the building trade”.
A month later, William reports that: “The timber trade
still goes on flourishingly enough and at a good profit too
in proof of which Chas and John have just erected a new
office in the front corner of the store as the last one was
too small, being merely the verandah of the house
enclosed.”
He added that: “By the way Chas and John have actually
got the credit of being honest men to deal with, which is a
very great admission here, where it is the custom to look
on every man as a knave, which however has its advantages
as people are not at all thin skinned about being suspected,
but look on it as a matter of course”.
The brothers’ elder sister Jeanie Smith, recorded on her
tombstone as Jane, came to Australia to keep house for
them. A letter to her from her father dated 10 June 1859
records: “I hope you will pay us a visit before long, if not
to remain with us altogether, which last I would prefer,
but you are of so much use to your brothers and so much
appreciated, that the wish is almost a selfish one. Some of
them will be getting wives lively at no distant date. I think
Charles should be looking about him for something of the
kind, but as far as Mother and I can understand him, he
has no engagement as yet nor any prospect of the kind”.
Although the name of the firm C & J Smith included only
two of the brothers, others were involved in the business at
various times. The Victorian Government Gazette records
a Dissolution of Partnership in 1877 as follows: “Notice
is hereby given that the partnership carried on under the
firm of C & J Smith as timber merchants at Albert St. East
Melbourne has this day been dissolved by mutual consent.
Smith family graves in the Melbourne General Cemetery.
30
The business will in future be carried on by Robert Smith
alone, under the style or firm of C & J Smith. Dated 13th
October 1877, Robert Smith, Adam Smith.”
Adam Smith was Robert’s cousin and the witness was
James McPherson, solicitor, Melbourne. As Charles Smith
died in Hobart in 1862, aged 39, this may have legally put
in place what had been a fact for many years. The James
McPherson who witnessed the document was Robert’s
brother-in-law.
Timber merchant businesses were also carried on in
Hobart, Sydney and Ballarat by various Smith family
members. The City of Ballarat Rate Book of 1871 shows
Adam and James Smith as the proprietors of Smith
Brothers Timber yard in Doveton Street South.
James Smith joined his brothers in Melbourne in 1857.
A year later he went to Sydney to manage a branch of the
business there and later, with Mr Goodlet, he purchased
the business, changing its name to ‘Goodlet and Smith’.
The fourth son of John and Alison Smith, James died in
Sydney on July 31, 1887. His obituary in Australian Men
of Mark details the life of a man whose life was “marked
deeply by a steadfast adherence to Christian principles”.
James had a severe railway accident about 20 years before
his death, from which he never recovered. A triple stained
glass window in the form of tribute to James is in the
Roseby Memorial Church in the inner Sydney suburb
of Marrickville.
While documents usually refer to Robert as ‘Timber
Merchant’, he also dealt extensively in land and between
1862 and 1890 there are 33 entries in his name at the
Titles Office, excluding country areas. In inner
Melbourne, Robert bought land in East Collingwood,
Northcote, Fitzroy, Carlton, North Melbourne, St Kilda,
Williamstown, Spottiswoode and Prahran. Further afield,
he acquired part of Dendy’s Survey in Moorabbin, and
also land at Booroondara, Doutta Galla and Jika Jika.
Some of the properties were bought in his name only
and others he bought either with one or several others.
Robert Smith also bought several parcels of land in the
Western District.
He married Priscilla Jane Macpherson on February 20,
1873 at her parents’ home, ‘Helena House’ in Nicholson
Street, Fitzroy. They were married by the Rev. Irving
Hetherington, assisted by the Rev. P.S. Menzies. The Age
wedding notice records that the marriage was between
Robert Smith, Melbourne, to Jane Priscilla, youngest
daughter of John McPherson of Nerrin Nerrin.
On February 22, 1875, in a letter to his brother, Robert’s
cousin Adam Smith writes: “Robert and his wife have now
moved out to their house in Grey Street and I am bird
alone again. They have a very nice house and have been
very busy furnishing it of late. The furniture is all very
handsome and generally the place has, as a book would
describe it, an air of mingled elegance and comfort.
Mrs Robert is very amiable and very pleasant and I liked
very well to have her as an inmate of the house. We had
occasionally in the evenings a three handed game at
cribbage which was our little dissipation but which I
expect you and Agnes do not indulge in”.
In April 1875, Jane Priscilla’s father died and Robert’s
cousin, Adam Smith, writes home to his brother in
Scotland: “McPherson, Robert’s father in law died about
a week ago. We have not heard definitely how everything
is settled and you need not say anything unless you have it
from Aunt John’s people. There is a trust made somehow
and the sons get some £4000 a year all but the eldest who
comes in with the girls who each get £500 a year and
£10,000 I think it is when the trust is broken up.”
Many of Robert’s land purchases appear to have been
made after 1890. If this is the case, it may be that Robert
bought land cheaply because of the land ‘bust’, which
began about 1888 and coincided with the family’s return
to Melbourne early in 1889. Between 1891 and 1912,
a further six land acquisitions are recorded in the Titles
Smith Brothers Timber yard in Doveton Street South, Ballarat.
By permission of the Ballarat Historical Society.
31
Office: near Northcote, North Melbourne, Ascot Vale,
Coburg and more land at Moorabbin.
From 1877 to 1881 Robert Smith is listed as living at
28 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy (the property left by John
Macpherson to Jane Priscilla). The firm of C & J Smith
continued at 18 Victoria Parade until 1883, then
disappeared from the directories.
Between 1881 and 1889, the whereabouts of Robert,
Priscilla and Helen are unclear. However, it appears
Robert and Priscilla spent time in Australia, Europe
and England, and Helen probably boarded at Glenview
Boarding School in Melrose, Scotland while her parents
were travelling. The family returned in 1889.
The Smiths lived in Toorak and a Certificate of Title
records a Transfer of Land dated August 10, 1882. The
land, of ‘one acre or thereabouts’ is in Toorak, with a
frontage to Orrong Road. The land, also owned at another
time by the Honorable Frederick Sargood, is probably
close to the current Sargood Street.
Robert’s brother, John returned to Scotland some time
before November 25, 1865 and died at Bournemouth in
England, aged 42 years. Brother Thomas died at the age
of 56 on September 7, 1887, at ‘Murweh’, The Esplanade,
St Kilda. He was buried in the Melbourne General
Cemetery. The obituary in ‘The Argus’ shows that
Thomas was both well known in pastoral circles, on the
board of directors of the National Bank of Australasia
and connected with the Land Mortgage Bank and the
Victoria Insurance Co.
The Smith brothers may have had a predisposition
to weakness of the lungs, as William Smith died of
pneumonia and Thomas of congestion of the lungs. A
notice in ‘The Age’ records that William died in Territet,
Montreux, Switzerland on January 24, 1900. His obituary
in ‘The Argus’ reads:
“The late Mr William Smith, whose death, after a brief
illness, is announced today, was born at Darnick, Melrose,
Scotland and while still a youth had five years training as
an articled clerk in a solicitor’s office. He came to
Victoria in 1854 and was engaged in business for several
years. He had been for the past thirty years a director of
the Colonial Bank, and he had also been a director of the
Melbourne Gas Company since its inception, in addition
to which he had been connected in a similar capacity with
many other prominent institutions and had large pastoral
interests in New South Wales. He left Melbourne in March
1889, for a prolonged holiday, Mrs Smith and his family
accompanying him, and he was spending the winter
months of the present year in Switzerland at Territet,
a suburb of Montreux, where he died of pneumonia. He
became a resident of St Kilda in 1881, and for a long time
past his home has been ‘Ravenswood’, the house in Alma
Road, which he built for himself some fifteen years ago”.
William had three marriages, one to Christina Macpherson
(Jane Priscilla’s sister), who bore him a son, John. After
her death, William married Rhoda Haller, then Susan
Ledlie Wilson, who bore him three children.
His brother Robert Smith and brother in law and
accountant Frederick Hamilton Wilson were executors.
His assets totalled over £27,000 and included
‘Duncraggon’, a weatherboard residence at Upper
Macedon. William also held a 7/16th interest in the
mortgage from the Mt Gipps Pastoral and Mineral Co
[sic] to R Sellar. He also held shares, including Kauri
Timber Co. and Hoffman Brick Co. However, his
liabilities totalled over £23,000 and his Victorian estate
was left with a balance of just under £4,000.
Several of the Smith brothers held shares in the Kauri
Timber Co., and investigations were made as to their
possible involvement, or that of C & J Smith, in the
Company. The Kauri Timber Co. 1888-1914, a thesis
submitted by Benita Carter for her MA at the University
of Melbourne in 1972, shows that the Company
commenced business in 1888, and did not take over
C & J Smith, focussing instead on timber companies in
New Zealand.
The thesis notes: “William Smith, retired timber merchant,
was one of the ten who attended a meeting in David
Blair’s office in February 1888. Blair was a timber
importer. Of these ten, only three remained active in
the venture, Blair, Smith and John Sharp. A provisional
syndicate was replaced by the Kauri Syndicate, and 60
shares of £10,000 each were available. Smith took out
three shares’’.
Kauri then became a public company, with William Smith
one of its directors, serving from 1890 until his death in
1900. There is a list of shareholders of more than 1,000
£1 shares in 1888, (excluding directors) but no other
Smith names are included.
32
Historian Alexander Henderson (author of Henderson’s
Australian Families) was engaged by the Kauri Timber
Co. to research and write its history in the 1950s but died
before it could be completed. He recorded that William
Smith was a director or promoter of Australian
Insurance Co., Australian Alliance Assurance Co.,
Hoffman Patent and Steam Brick Co., Hoffman Land and
Investment Co., Illilawa Co., Metropolitan Gas Co. (with
which Thomas was involved) and the Mt. Gipps Pastoral
and Mining Co.
There is also mention in Carter’s thesis of Mt Gipps
and William Smith’s connection with the “vast Mt Gipps
property where the fabulous Broken Hill mines were
discovered. William Smith and Sir James McCulloch,
a former Victorian premier, were joint owners of 14,000
square miles of Mt Gipps and it was probably to their
everlasting regret that they decided not to join the original
Broken Hill syndicate”.
Robert Smith died at ‘Egoleen’, Clendon Road, Toorak on
June 17th, 1904 aged in his late 60s. The funeral notice in
‘The Argus’ on that date said that his death was ‘sudden’
and announced ‘The funeral will leave his late residence,
‘Aberfeldie’, Toorak Road, the home of Jane Priscilla,
indicating that Robert and his wife were not living
together at the time of his death.
Robert Smith’s will was made on September 12, 1902
while living at ‘Egoleen’, Clendon Road., Toorak,
occupation ‘gentleman’. His only property was ‘Beleura’
in Mornington, set in just over 182 acres, valued at
£3574.18.9 and left to his wife Jane Priscilla. She and
Helen shared the estate, and Jane Priscilla and Frederick
Hamilton Wilson were appointed joint executors.
Robert’s personal property totalled almost £18,000, which
with ‘Beleura’ made a total of £21,544.2.2. Liabilities
reduced it to £12,952.12.6.
The Smiths made an indelible mark on both Melbourne
and Sydney. They were sound businessmen, occasional
risk takers, and took advantage of opportunities. Above
all, they were a closely knit family, helping each other
and being helped by family members in Scotland. And
they contributed significantly to the eventual wealth of
Helen Macpherson Schutt and through her, to the people
of Victoria today.
Life Lines
Life lines: The Smiths in Land and Timber
33
1850
Charles and John, Robert Smith’s elder brothers, come to Melbourne and begin
a timber business.
1854
William and Thomas Smith, Robert’s brothers, come to Melbourne and become
partners in the timber business.
1855
George, another brother, comes to Melbourne.
c.1855
Robert Smith comes to Melbourne.
1856
Charles and John register C & J Smith, Timber Merchants.
1857
James Smith joins his brothers in Melbourne.
1858
James Smith goes to Sydney, buys the business of Goodlet and Smith.
1859
Adam Smith, Robert’s cousin, comes to Melbourne.
13 February 1862
Charles dies in Hobart, aged 39.
1862 – 1890
Robert makes land purchases across inner and outer Melbourne.
c 1865
John Smith dies in England.
30 October 1866
George dies in Melbourne, aged 29.
c 1871
Adam and James Smith are proprietors of Smith Brothers a timber yard in Ballarat.
20 February 1873
Robert Smith marries Jane Priscilla Macpherson.
1883
C & J Smith disappears from the directories.
31 July 1887
James Smith dies in Sydney.
7 August 1887
Thomas Smith dies in Sydney.
10 August 1888
Adam Smith, Robert’s cousin, dies in Melbourne.
1891 – 1912
Robert Smith acquires more land.
1899
Robert Smith buys ‘Beleura’ in Mornington near Melbourne.
1900
William Smith dies in Switzerland.
17 June 1904
Robert Smith dies in Melbourne.
24 January 1911
Jeanie, Robert’s eldest sister, who spent some years in Melbourne housekeeping
for her brothers, dies in Scotland aged 82.
2 December 1914
Jane Priscilla Smith dies in Melbourne, aged 67.
34
A Lasting Legacy
A Lasting Legacy
The generosity of Helen Macpherson Schutt has had a
significant impact on the lives of many thousands of
Victorians since her death on 19th April 1951. Her
endowment of almost £350,000 for the establishment of a
perpetual charitable trust is a lasting legacy to the people
of Victoria and now, on the 50th anniversary of her Trust,
its capital has grown to over $50 million.
Fifty years in the life of a perpetual trust is, Trust
Chairman Darvell Hutchinson says, “a mere drop in the
ocean”, with the Trust in its infancy and an extremely
important role lying ahead.
The Trust made a number of relatively small grants during
its first 21 years. In her will, Helen requested that her
Trustees give consideration to some of the organisations
she had supported during her lifetime and many of the
early grants made by the Trust went to them. They
included the Lost Dogs’ Home, Royal Children’s Hospital,
Royal District Nursing Service, Mission to Seamen,
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,
and the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. Beyond
that request, Helen gave her Trustees wide discretionary
powers to invest the capital and distribute the income
of the Trust.
Under the terms of her will, the Trustees were directed to
accumulate the major part of the income derived for the
first 21 years of the Trust, and thereafter to distribute all
income for the benefit of Victorian charitable
organisations that qualified for a Grant.
Up until 30 June 2000, a total of $34.5 million in grants
has been distributed, providing funds for research,
community infrastructure projects, and program delivery
by hundreds of Victorian charitable organisations
dedicated to meet areas of need.
In 1972, when major grants started to flow, the book value
of the capital was $3,165,000. By June 2000, the capital
had grown to $41,046,000 with a market value of over
$50 million.
The annual income available for distribution is close to
$2.25 million and with the benefit of new taxation
legislation effective from 1st July 2000 to refund
philanthropic trusts for the value of their franking credits
on dividends derived, the level of total grants will grow
to around $3.5 million per annum.
Over the first 50 years of the Trust, many major grants
have been made to a wide range of programs and services
that are an integral part of community life throughout
Victoria. These include:
•
Hospitals, universities and medical research institutes
which have received grants for pioneering research on
a wide range of initiatives linked to the diagnosis and
treatment of illness;
•
Community service organisations, including those
supporting children, the aged and the disabled have
received grants for both infrastructure and innovative
services;
•
Many educational bodies have benefited from grants
which have enhanced their opportunities beyond those
possible with Government funds;
•
The cultural and artistic life of Victorians has been
enriched by grants to libraries, museums, galleries,
the performing arts, together with many smaller
community initiatives; and
•
Scholarships and fellowships have been made
available for students at universities and tertiary
colleges in many fields including medicine, research
and artistic pursuits.
Grants have ranged from $500 for small community
projects to $650,000 granted to the Royal District Nursing
Service in 1996 to establish its new head office in Alma
Road, St Kilda. Helen had been a donor to the Melbourne
District Nursing Society (now RDNS) as far back as 1919,
which was a crisis year for the Society with Melbourne’s
population falling victim to Australia’s worst influenza
epidemic on record. The long-standing connection with
one of Helen’s favoured charities was a major factor in
endowing the new headquarters building of the RDNS,
known as the ‘Schutt Trust Building’. Many organisations
across Victoria now have buildings, wings, departments,
or rooms carrying her name.
The Trust has supported a wide spectrum of organisations
tackling major and emerging social issues. For many
years, funds have been allocated for the diagnosis and
treatment of drug addiction; for the research and
development of projects associated with combating
35
homelessness; for programs addressing the impact of child
abuse; for support of organisations dealing with structural
unemployment through the provision of employment and
training initiatives, and for the protection of Victoria’s
heritage and environment.
Priority has been given to treatment programs associated
with major illnesses and diseases, including cancer,
asthma, deafness, vision impairment, diabetes, cystic
fibrosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Many projects associated
with the treatment and care of those with intellectual and
physical disabilities have been supported by the Trust.
The Trustees also have supported many important rural
community initiatives, in recognition of the source of
Helen Schutt’s inheritance from her grandfather’s grazing
and pastoral ventures.
Looking to the future, the Trustees are addressing
challenges brought about by evolutionary changes
in the sectors for which the Trust provides support.
Some charitable organisations are merging or changing
direction, while others are developing a greater
commercial dimension. Funding arrangements from State
and Federal governments are under increasing budgetary
pressures, and governments are moving towards
developing funding partnerships with corporations
and philanthropic trusts.
Whatever the changes over the next 50 years, a key
priority of the Trustees will be to continue to grow the
capital base to maximise the amount of income available
for worthy grants during the 21st Century. The Trustees
intend to become more pro-active in identifying specific
community needs for support, and in some cases
establishing partnerships with other benefactors
to fulfil maximum outcomes for such projects.
The considerable increase in the number of charitable
organisations over recent decades, coupled with enhanced
sophistication in the art of fundraising, has resulted in
greater pressure on the limited funds of philanthropic
trusts. At some stage, this changed scenario will need to
be addressed by government to ensure optimum outcomes
are achieved by the charitable sector in the competitive
years ahead.
Helen’s generous benefaction ensures that not only
her philanthropic spirit is remembered, but also the
contributions of her forebears, the Macphersons and
the Smiths, whose sound business practices and
entrepreneurial activities enabled the lasting legacy
of Helen Macpherson Schutt to do so much.
Trust Chairman Darvell Hutchinson believes that ‘50’
years hence, when the Helen M Schutt Trust celebrates
its centenary, it will have made an even greater
contribution to the improvement of community
life throughout the State of Victoria”.
Past and Present Trustees of the Helen M Schutt Trust
1951 – 1952
John Reginald Bishop
& Frank Herbert Druce
1952 – 1958
John Reginald Bishop
& Leslie Arthur Sayers
1958 – 1964
John Reginald Bishop
& John Stanley Burgess Davis
1964 – 1969
John Stanley Burgess Davis
& Darvell Martin Hutchinson
1969 – 1971
Darvell Martin Hutchinson
& John Barry Hutchins
1971 – 1991
Darvell Martin Hutchinson
& John Barry Hutchins
& David Crosbie Petley
1991 – 1994
Darvell Martin Hutchinson
& John Barry Hutchins
& Ian Wooding Wavish
1994
Darvell Martin Hutchinson
& John Barry Hutchins
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
36
The assistance of both the Macpherson and Schutt
families is gratefully acknowledged, in particular the
contribution of the Reverend Ian MacPherson, great great
grandson of John Macpherson, whose assistance and
writings proved invaluable. Among other family members,
thanks go to:
• Keith Smith, London
• Jean Smith ‘Darnlee’ Darnick, Scotland
• Anabel McDonald, Pambula, New South Wales
• Joan Cardwell, Tocumwal, New South Wales
• Mary Dixon, Walla Walla, New South Wales
• Lallie Gilfillan, Sydney, New South Wales
• Tom Parbury, Tenterfield, New South Wales
• Eric Knutson, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
• Janet Page, Ivanhoe, Victoria
• Len Schutt, Williamstown, Victoria
• Arthur H Schutt MBE, Surfers Paradise, Qld.
• John Villiers, Rockhampton, Queensland
To Darvell M Hutchinson, Chairman of the Helen M
Schutt Trust, sincere thanks for his personal interest,
persistence, support and close eye to detail during the
research and writing of this history.
Special thanks to Helen Doxford Harris, OAM,
genealogist and researcher, whose persistence, personal
interest and knowledge has added so much to this history.
Also to Betty Iggo, Edinburgh based genealogist, who
worked extensively on the Smith Scottish connections.
Others who generously gave time and information are:
• John Tallis, ‘Beleura’ Mornington, Victoria
• John and Gwen Lewis, ‘Nerrin Nerrin’, Victoria
• Ada Ackerly, Newport, Victoria
• Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Langwarrin, Victoria
• R Challoner, British Consul, Nice, France
• G Paxton, South Yarra, Victoria
• Betty Malone, Prahran Historical Society, Prahran, Victoria
• Christopher Daniel, former Secretary, Melbourne
Savage Club
• Hamilton and Western District Historical Society,
Hamilton, Victoria
• Patrick Holder, Ashburton, Victoria
Photographs
These come from a variety of sources. Some are held by
various members of the Macpherson family, others are
from the La Trobe Library, Melbourne, the Australian
National Library, Canberra, and the Public Record Office
Victoria, Ballarat. They are all reproduced with permission.
Writer
Jane Sandilands is a freelance writer and editor who
now works at Bermagui on the far south coast of New
South Wales. She was founding editor of the journal
Philanthrophy and has written short histories of the lives
of philanthropists Dafydd Lewis, Hugh Williamson, and
William Buckland.
Design
MDM Design Associates, Abbotsford, Victoria
Helen M Schutt Trust
Level 8
20 Queen Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Telephone [+61 3] 9614 7933
Facsimile [+61 3] 9614 8471
Email hmschutt@bigpond.com.au
Helen’s handwritten note reflects the generous intention of her legacy to the many Victorian
charities who have benefited from that generosity during the first 50 years of her trust, and
to those who will do so in the future.