[[index.html|
]]
St Elmo
17 Quarry Street (fomerly no. 30)
James Gilchrist was a policeman from Ireland. He served as a policeman in Bunbury Newcastle/Toodyay and Fremantle. He was retrenched in March 1888 and paid £435/12/6, with part of which he built his house, St Elmo, in Quarry Street. It had six rooms and was built by Howson and Fishwick under construction in October 1888.
There was a problem with the front steps in December 1888, as a result of which William Fishwick took Thomas Howson to the Local Court and then the Supreme Court to get payment for £66/16/3 for work done and material supplied on the front steps of James Gilchrist’s house.
The Supreme Court ordered the sale of town lot 905 situate in Malcom St with a large house on it to be sold to pay the debt. The house was not sold, so presumably the money was repaid but ultimately Thomas Howson (son of Robert 'Spinaway' Howson ship builder) went bankrupt and then died a few months later.
He may have committed suicide, as there is only one notice of his funeral and no other report about him.
James Gilchrist’s three daughters entered the convent. He died at his home in Quarry Street 31 July 1903.
Erickson:
GILCHRIST, James, m. 1st 29.7.1861 (Frem RC) Margaret WHELAN b. 1837 d. 4.6.1870, she arr. 6.4.1859 per Hamilla Mitchell, m. 2nd 27.12.1873 (Bunbury) Eleanor ELWOOD b. 1848, she arr. 11.8.1867 per Palestine. Chd. Elizabeth b. 1864 (York RC), Christina bp. 1866 (Albany), James b. 1869 (d. infancy?), William Francis b. c.1879, d. 1886 (Toodyay), James Levi b. 1882 d. 1885 (Toodyay). Police Constable, York 1865 to Albany that year. Bt. Albany Town Lots 1867. Listed with 3 dtrs. 1871. Police Sgt. Bunbury 1873, Toodyay 1878, Northam 1880, dismissed 1888 staff reductions.
References and Links
All the data above kindly provided by Lee-Anne Perceval.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 4 March, 2024 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/stelmo.html (it was last updated on 5 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.