Rae, who was born in Scotland in 1813, was the son of a
banker. He had been educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and later went on to
study at the University of Aberdeen. Articled to a solicitor, he later
continued his literary interests and law studies in Edinburgh. After deciding
to migrate to Australia he joined the firm of North British Australasian Loan
and Investment Co. He arrived in 1843 aboard the Kinnear. Unfortunately for Rae the firm was almost broke by the
time he arrived.
He married Elizabeth Thompson
in 1854 and the couple made a home at Darlinghurst. Rae was the Town Clerk of
Sydney in 1851, and together with Charles Cowper, he sought an investigation
into the state of the Council. He supported the setting up of a select
committee that appointed three commissioners: G. Eliot, F.O. Darvall and Rae
himself. However charges of mismanagement and neglect saw the Legislative
Assembly dismiss the commissioners and restore the Council to a corporation in
1857.
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| John Rae watercolour of George Street Sydney |
Rae travelled overseas and was
a noted educationalist, photographer, and amateur artist, painting for his own
pleasure. Rae was also a director of the Australian Gaslight Co. and owner of
the People’s Palace. The 1875 Sands Directory
refers to Mr John Rae as being the Under Secretary of Public Works and
Railways, while the 1882 Gibbs and
Shallard directory mentions the residence of J. Rae at Valley Heights. This
may very well have been the cottage Tusculum, as the index mentions that it was
one of the principal residences then existing in Valley Heights. Other
residences mentioned were those of I.
Brennand, W. Deane, W. Dawson (Upton), and Mrs Berne.
The Valley Heights property
had first been acquired by Mr T.R. Smith
under conditional purchase, but in later years was bought by Rae. Clarence
Radford Chapman, a civil servant, together with Lancelot Percival Brennand,
whose address was care of the Treasury, purchased the property when Rae died in
1900.
In 1882 the Nepean Times reported that a discovery
of silver had been found in the mountains. The article went on to say that the
peculiar discovery had been made on the property of Mr John Rae by a pig
rooting around in a paddock close to the homestead. A search of the area revealed
Spanish dollars dated as old as 1804, bearing the heads of Ferdinand and
Carolus. Amongst the hoard of coins was also a ‘colonial holey dollar’, a
five-shilling Bank of England and four lion shillings dated 1826. The paper
stated that the mystery was unlikely to be solved, since judging by the dates
on the coins they had probably been buried for some fifty years.
Article from Biographical Dictionary of the Springwood District
Pamela Smith
