Millar Buzzard

1.2.4
Final Years of the Circulating Library

Ten years after the Circulating Bookshop was established, a near tragedy occurred at the bookshop and home of Alfred’s family in 1863, when a Police Constable noticed a fire in the upper floor living quarters of the building.

In the first newspaper account, a bedroom was occupied by two children. According to the description below and considering the ages of the children described, they were Thomas’s children, Alfred Ernest (Millar’s father) and Edmund Wilfred. If not for Constable Clarke’s actions, the outcome may have been different, and the story being told here would not have been written as Millar Buzzard would not have been born.

However, different accounts of the circumstances surrounding the fire, appeared in the local newspapers.

Account 1
Fire at 181 Bourke Street

In first account above, the parents were absent from the building and the servant was down the yard. However, a second account of the circumstances surrounding the fire differed greatly from the first:

Account 2
Fire at 181 Bourke Street

(“Yan Yean”, referred to in the above, was “water” supplied by Melbourne’s oldest reservoir. John Millar (Engineer), whose granddaughter, Emily Alice, married Alfred Ernest Buzzard, built the “Yan Yean” water works. [21] The Millar family is documented below.)

The second account said Thomas was at home and put out the fire and there were four children in the bedroom. Yet a third account was at odds with the first two accounts:

Account 3
Fire at 181 Bourke Street

In the above, the parents were not home, there were two children in the bedroom and the servant was downstairs but not aware of the fire.

A question arises as to whether Constable Clarke was quoted correctly in the first account or did an influential businessman in Melbourne use his position to prevent himself from being “portrayed in a bad light”? Alternatively, were the reporters guilty of sensationalism? We may never know.

On 7th July 1866 another fire broke out in the library storage depot at 3 Collins Street East but was contained by 4 jets of “Yan Yean” and although Thomas lost books to water damage he was insured for £1,000. [22]

Trading from 181 Bourke Street was obviously good for Thomas as by 11th February 1864 he had taken on another building at 15 Collins Street. We know this by a court case in which a man was accused of stealing a book from the Collins Street store and the manager, Mr. N. Wade, and his assistant Enoch Goater, were called to give evidence in the man’s trial. [23]

Subsequently, his fortunes took a downturn as on 10th March 1870, it was reported that there were rumours of “two small [business] failures” and Thomas called a meeting of his creditors for the next day. [24] Legal action was taken against the trustees for the creditors on 11th March 1870, as Thomas had assigned all his property to the trustees before the Sheriff served a writ on him to seize his stock. [25]

Court Case involving Seizure of Goods from Bookshop

On 5th May 1870, a notice appeared in a newspaper asking that “all claims against the Trust ESTATE of T. M BUZZARD Bookseller, Collins Street West, must be SENT IN to the undersigned …. To be recognized”. [26] A final auction of all stock at bookshop was concluded on 30th May 1970 and the shop doors were closed for the final time.

Closing Down Sale of Bookshop

Together with the windup of the circulating library and the subsequent cases Thomas was to attend, another matter brought Thomas to the Supreme Court of Victoria. The was the infamous case of Clutterbuck V’s Barlow.

The Clutterbuck Case

The trial concluded on the next day and as the jury was already discharged his Honor wound up the case, with no orders made.

Various legal wrangles culminated in T. M. Buzzard’s Circular Library in Collins Street being renamed the Glasgow Book Warehouse on 4th July 1870 and Thomas Meredith retired. [27]

Alfred Ernest chose a different occupation than his father. He more than likely first started working at his father’s bookshop, but he went on to sell and auction property, and develop land for sale.

The first known business advertisement he placed in a newspaper was on 21st December 1883. He was 24 years old at the time. Beside running his own business, he went on to become involved in various property syndicates.

In Appendix 2.0 is information on Alfred Ernest Buzzard, Auctioneer & Property Developer.

On 22nd December 1885, Alfred Ernest married Emily Alice Millar.

(Here we will pause the Buzzard family history, to maintain the chronological order of events, and outline the history of Emily Alice’s family.)

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[21] Strictures on the Yan Yean Water-Works – Melbourne Herald 1863
[22] Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 7 July 1866, page 5
[23] Star (Ballarat, Vic: 1855 - 1864), Thursday 24 March 1864, page 2
[24] Ballarat Courier (Vic: 1869 - 1884; 1914 - 1918), Thursday 10 March 1870, page 2
[25] Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), Tuesday 29 March 1870, page 2 (2)
[26] Argus (Melbourne, Vic: 1848 - 1957), Thursday 5 May 1870, page 3 (6)
[27] Argus (Melbourne, Vic: 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 28 June 1870, page 3 (8)