[MELBOURNE] Town Lot purchase document for land in present-day Carlton, with signature and seal of Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe, countersigned by William Lonsdale. 16 May, 1853.

[Melbourne : Government of the Colony of Victoria]. Pro forma document printed on vellum, 340 x 430 mm, with manuscript entries recording the purchase by Robert Hepburn for £270 of a Town Lot measuring one rood (1/4 acre) at the corner of Queensberry Street and Bouverie Street (now Carlton), in the County of Bourke, Parish of Jika Jika, dated 16 May 1853; with the paper seal and full signature of Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe at the foot, and countersigned by William Lonsdale, Colonial Secretary and Registrar; verso titled ‘Grant, by Purchase, to Robert Hepburn, dated 16th May 1853’, and docketed by Augustus Farley, Assistant Registrar; original folds, very well preserved.

A desirable Victorian government land document from the Gold Rush period, signed by both La Trobe and Lonsdale.

The purchaser, Robert Hepburn, was a major property-owner in early Melbourne. He acquired numerous allotments from the government, chiefly in Carlton and East Melbourne.

The document is docketed on the verso by Augustus Farley. In 1856, as Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office, Farley embezzled a large sum of money and fled to Calcutta. He then committed suicide upon learning he was being pursued by the authorities.