Thomas Napier

Who was Thomas Napier?

Thomas Napier was born in Scotland. He emigrating to the Australian Colonies in 1832, first to Van Diemen's Land and then later to the Port Phillip District. He was a builder and continued that trade in the colonies. He moved to Melbourne in 1837 less than two years after the first permanent settlement of the Port Phillip area. He purchased a half acre of land in Collins Street in the centre of Melbourne and built a house for himself and his new wife Jessie Patterson. The land cost him 20 pounds. In 1845, he moved out to the Strathmore area, building a house on the top of the hill in Woodland Street, in the area now occupied by the Catholic Church and School. He called that house “Rosebank."

Thomas Napier was made a Justice of the Peace in 1860. In the same year, he laid the Foundation Stone of the now demolished Pascoe Vale National School which was located adjacent to Moonee Ponds Creek where Five Mile Creek enters.

When he died in 1881, his property was divided between his wife, Jessie, and his son, Theodore.

Jessie died in 1891 and her property was left to her daughter Eleanor and son in -law, George Page Barber.