The suburb of Doveton was established in the mid 1950s by the Housing Commission to provide housing for the employees of the 'Big Three' Industrial companies, International Harvester Company, H.J Heinz and General Motors Holden. The area was originally known as Grassmere or Eumemmerring, which I have written about here. However in September 1954 the new suburb was named Doveton after Captain John Doveton. This is an interesting choice given that Captain and Mrs Doveton were only in the area for ten years and there are other families with a much longer or much earlier connection to the area. They had already been remembered in the area by the naming of Doveton Avenue, which dates from the mid-1920s (1). Doveton is variation of the name Dufton which means dove farm or farm where doves are kept (2).
This post looks at the life of John and Margaret Elizabeth Doveton. They were actually first cousins, he was the son of John Bazett Doveton and Margaret was the daughter of Francis Crossman Doveton. They married on October 8, 1873 at All Saints Church in St Kilda. Their marriage certificate tells us that he was a Master Mariner, born in Saltford, Somerset and she was a Spinster, born in Tasmania. Usually marriage certificates state the age of the couple, but theirs just said they were of 'full age', however he was 30 and she was 29.
After they married they lived for a time in Barkly Street, St Kilda and then Murray Street, Prahran and during this time, John continued his career as a master mariner. There was a report in The Age of September 21, 1874 about the new steamship Durham which had just arrived from London after 47 days of sailing. Mr John Doveton is listed as the Second Officer (3). The Argus has various reports, in the Shipping Intelligence column, of Captain Doveton arriving and departing Melbourne as the Captain of the Julia Percy, then the Tamar and then the Southern Cross.
A report in the Hobart Mercury of May 8, 1882 (see below) said Southern Cross, under Doveton, run ashore on the Vansittart Shoals between Babel Island and Cape Barren in Bass Strait. Captain Doveton was suspended from the Command, pending an enquiry. Another report in the same paper of May 23, 1882 said that Captain Doveton had resigned. After this, the only reports I could find about Captain Doveton involved him supervising work at the Wright, Orr & Co. floating Dry Dock and later at the Alfrred Graving Dock, so it appears he was still involved in the maritime industry, but no longer went to sea (4).
In 1893, the couple moved to Grassmere, just east of Dandneong, which at the time was still very much a country town. The first listing for Captain Doveton in the Shire of Berwick Rate books was in 1893/94. He owned a house and 2½ acres at Lot 53, Parish of Eumemmerring, in Grassmere. The following year he is listed as having another 2½ acres, Lot 56, so five acres in all. Even though Captain Doveton was listed as the ratepayer, according to the Title, the property was actually purchased in Margaret's name. From 1900 it was leased out and was sold on August 21 1903 to Robert Skinner. The house, which is now demolished was located around Gumbuya Close, off Doveton Avenue (5).
We have looked at John and Margaret's life together, now we will have a look at their lives before they married.
John Doveton was the son of John Bazette Doveton and Mary Harriett Fenton, they had married in October 1838 in Saltford, Somerset. The Minister who performed the ceremony was the Reverend John Frederick Doveton, the father of the groom. John was baptised on February 21, 1843 in Saltford, I don't have his date of birth, but based on the date of his baptism its is likely to be the end of 1842 or beginning of 1843. His father, who was also a Church of England Minister, actually performed the baptism ceremony on his son. John's father and grandfather had both studied at Oxford University and they both held the position of Rector of the parish of Burnett, Somerset (7). As a reminder of his childhood, John and Margaret had named their house in Atherton Road, Oakleigh Burnett.
The family were quite well off. In the 1851 Census the family is listed at Burnett - John Bazett (aged 44, occupation Rector of Burnett), Harriet (aged 32) and their children, Catherine (aged 9), our John (aged 8), Bazett (aged 6), Caroline (aged 3) and Ella (aged 1). They also had a Governess and four female servants living in the house. In the 1861 Census, John Bazette Doveton was still the Rector of Burnett, and there are two more children in the family, Mary Harriet aged 9 and Henry aged only 10 months (8).
John went away to sea and in May 1862 gained the qualification of Second mate (9). He obviously sailed his way to Victoria as he married Margaret in 1873, but I don't have any details of this part of his career. Margaret Elizabeth Doveton was born in Hobart on November 17, 1844 to Francis Crossman Doveton and Margaret Bostock. Francis and Margaret had married in Launceston in September 1842. They had another daughter Rachel Emily in Tasmania in 1846 and then moved to Victoria where they had three more children, Annie (1848), Francis (1850) and John (1852). Margaret died in 1853 and in 1855 Francis married Mary Ann Snell and they had eight children together (10).
Francis Crossman Doveton, was another son of the Reverend John Frederick Doveton and his wife Elizabeth Crossman and thus the brother of the Reverend John Bazett Doveton (11). Francis joined the British Army, when he was married his occupation was listed as a Lieutenant in the 51st Regiment. The 51st Regiment (2nd Yorkshire West Riding), or The King's Own Light Infantry Regiment escorted convict ships to Australia in 1837 when they left Tasmania for Bengal in 1846, Francis remained behind (12). Francis and Margaret moved to Victoria around this time. From 1851 Francis had a number of Government appointments the first being the Commissioner of Crown lands in the Buninyong and Lodden Districts (13). This covered Ballarat and he was stationed at Ballarat during the Eureka uprising where he had the unpopular responsibility of leading the troopers against the gold diggers (14).
As we saw before Margaret named her house in Surrey Hills, Everdon, and there is an Everdon Hall, a Grade II listed building, in Everdon, Northamptonshire, which was built around 1820 for General Doveton, so Margaret and John are almost certainly connected to him. The article, above, mentions a Sir William Doveton (1753-1843), he apparently spent all his life on St Helena in the service of the East India Company, so possibly General Doveton was his brother (16).
John and Margaret came from a very well connected solid middle (upper?) class family. It is ironic, then, that the suburb of Doveton was from the start a working class suburb. It did, however, have a strong sense of community. Dennis Glover grew up in Doveton in the 1960s and 1970s and has written about the suburb in his book An economy is not a society: winners and losers in the new Australia (Redback, 2015). Well worth tracking down to look back at time before economic growth was considered more important than community. There is a great interview with Dennis Glover here, in the Sydney Morning Herald of February 18, 2014.
In conclusion, the fact that Captain John Doveton and Margaret Elizabeth Doveton were first cousins, means that Margaret should have as much status as the namesake of the suburb of Doveton as her husband has traditionally had.
Footnotes(1) I have written about Grassmere, Eumemmerring and Doveton Avenue, here.
(2) Mills, A.D A dictionary of British Place names (Oxford University Press, 2003)
(3) The addresses come from the Rate book on Ancestry.com; The Age September 21, 1874, read here.
(4) Hobart Mercury May 8, 1882, see here; Hobart Mercury, May 23 1882, see here; The Argus, February 6 1885, see here; The Herald, April 5, 1888, see here.
(5) Rate Books are at Casey Cardinia Libraries. The Title was in the Archive there.
(6) Death certificates of John Doveton and Margaret Doveton. Electoral Rolls are on Ancestry.com.
(7) Marriage and Baptism certificates on Ancestry.com as is the list of Oxford University Alumni.
(8) U.K Census available on Ancestry.com
(9) Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Masters and Mates Certificates, 1850-1927
(10) Tasmanian Archives and the Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(11) Parents listed on Death Certificate.
(12) https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/51st-2nd-yorkshire-west-riding-or-kings-own-light-infantry-regiment
(15) Victoria Government Gazette http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/ ; Death Certificate.
