eHive Object Details

Name/TitleJohn Jones Peers : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920

About this objectA photograph of a light coloured tombstone with a round top and concave shoulders marking the burial of John Jones Peers and his son, Edward. An iron railing and tall weeds surround the slightly left-leaning stone.

A carving of a cloaked figure with long hair holding a scroll and seated in front of a harp, decorates the top of the tombstone. The inscription is carved towards the top of the stone leaving room for additional family members. Also, it appears that the mason carving the inscription used different fonts and styles, almost like they was advertising their skills.

Selby tells us that the grave was sited at the corner of the Wesleyan Division, near the oval in the centre. (p. 133, OPMHoM)

The inscription reads: (51 in Selby's grave index, p. 395, OPMHoM)

SACRED
To The Memory Of
EDWARD PEERS
Who Died February 12th 1842 ;
Aged 9 Years
-----------
Also To The Memory Of
JOHN JONES PEERS
Of Richmond His Father
Whose Remains Lie Here Intered .
He was born at Liverpool in England
on the 28th of March A.D. 1805
And Died At Sydney N.S. Wales
On The 21st August A.D. 1850 .

Newspaper reports tell us that Edward was an only son and died after falling from a horse. J. J. Peers died in O'Connell street in Sydney and was "deeply regretted by a numerous circle of friends".

Mary Anne Peers, his wife, was memorialised on her daughter and son-in-law's monument in Melbourne General Cemetery. She died in 1891 aged 88. John Jones and Edward's details were also included on this monument, and maybe their remains were reinterred here also.

Selby writes that J. J. Peers was contracted to build the Custom House by Lonsdale. He also bought land in the first land sale in 1837, and built the first Wesleyan Church, at the corner of Swanston and Flinders Lane, with his own money on his own land. He was also on the committee of the Melbourne Building Society.

In January 1833 Peers, a bricklayer, arrived from London via the Cape of Good Hope. He set up a bricklaying and plastering business with E. W. Sims in Hobart, which advertised "colouring and stencilling equal to paper." There is an account, given by John Jones Peers in the Hobart Town Courier of April 1837, in which he describes how he and his wife and two children survived a shipwreck at Cape Nelson. In 1845 he imported a brick making machine and commenced operations in Richmond.

Over the years Peers bought and sold land in Tasmania and Australia, leaving a valuable real estate portfolio on his death, which was managed by the Peers family and trustees for many decades following. One parcel of land, first purchased by Peers in 1837 at 344-350 Collins street, was put up for sale in the 1930s. Described as a "Magnificent Pile of Buildings" including "an Arcade of Shops from Collins Street to Little Collins Street."

There is a mention on a UK genealogy website that John Jones was an undischarged bankrupt when he emigrated to Victoria, and failed to appear at the hearings into his insolvency in Liverpool. He married a Peers and took his wives name.

This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) around 1920 as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.

One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.

For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

MakerMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Maker RolePhotographer

Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm

Period1910-1920

Object TypePhotograph

Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956

Subject and Association KeywordsMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Subject and Association KeywordsOld Melbourne Cemetery (Melbourne)

Subject and Association KeywordsCollins Street (Melbourne, Vic.)

Subject and Association KeywordsBrickmaking and brickworks

Subject and Association KeywordsShipwrecks

Subject and Association KeywordsChildren

Subject and Association KeywordsPeers, John Jones, 1805-1850

Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials

Named CollectionImages collection

Object numberGS-TM-38

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved