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Adelaide’s father was John Pritchard Burton. Sources obtained by the Heidelberg Historical Society describe John Pritchard Burton as a herbalist and nurseryman, living at Woodrow, 21 Maltravers Road, Ivanhoe East, c. 1895-1905. He achieved local fame in the late 1890s when hundreds of people seeking herbal cures for their ailments waited to see him. A newspaper report in 1899 notes that a daughter was living with him at this time. This is likely to have been Adelaide.
John Pritchard’s wife Elizabeth had died by 1899 so Adelaide may have acted as his housekeeper and perhaps helped to manage the people who came to the house seeking herbal treatments. The house at Maltravers Rd was probably the eight-roomed house with coach and stables listed (at the time of his death) as property rented by John Pritchard.
When John Pritchard died in 1905, Adelaide was 50 yrs old. She was bequeathed all her father’s personal and real estate which included a property in Yarra St, Ivanhoe (value: £210) purchased by her father and placed in her name. Adelaide had at least two other siblings: a sister Elizabeth Duncan née Burton (c.1852-1948) and a brother Frederick Pritchard Burton (1860-1939). However, neither of these siblings were beneficiaries in John Pritchard’s will.
Adelaide died in 1942, aged 87. Probate records show that the sole beneficiary of her will was her nephew Roland Ramsay Duncan (the son of her sister Elizabeth). Adelaide left a property (sold for £575) on the corner of Waterdale Rd and Lower Heidelberg Rd ‘upon which is erected a very old weatherboard house (over 60 yrs old) and only fit for removal’. Her furniture and household effects were valued at £23.
A Mr Burton was a member of the Scots Church when the quilt was being made, but we do not know if he was connected with Adelaide’s family.
Adelaide is not a known relative of Sergeant and Mrs Burton at the Heidelberg police residence - see [M14].
References
‘New Insolvent,’ Argus, 25 Jan 1879, p. 7.
‘The Ivanhoe Healer’, Brighton Southern Cross, 5 Nov 1898, p. 4.
‘A Modern Miracle Worker,’ Melbourne Punch, 1 June 1899, p. 4.
Mercury and Weekly Courier, 9 June 1899, p. 2.
Adelaide Burton: BDMV 6371/1942
John Pritchard Burton: BDMV 9230/1905
Elizabeth Duncan: BDMV 22719/1948
Frederick Pritchard Burton: BDMV 292/1860; BDMV 8432/1939.
Will and Probate of Adelaide Burton, VPRS 7591/ P2 unit 1185, item 336/422; VPRS 28/ P3 unit 3704, item 336/422, viewed at PROV, 13 Dec 2020.
Will and Probate of John Pritchard Burton, VPRS 7591/ P2 unit 377, item 95/180; VPRS 28/ P2 unit 727, item 95/180, viewed online 20.02.20.
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